The PA Happy Birthday Thread

So, the winner today is SirensSong. Michelle Keshel celebrates her 56th birthday in that wonderful town of Milwaukee in Wisconsin. This town is somewhere Mr Laz would obviously feel right at home in, given that it is celebrated for its breweries. And if I were reading this post in the Land of the Free today, I really would be getting into my Chevy and hot footing it over to the town this week, because their wonderful alderpersonages are giving very strong exhortations for folk to celebrate Black Restaurant Week there by visiting local eateries. In my opinion, this is extremely important, given that far too many of us visit restaurants painted in white, or red, or green, and pay far too little attention to the black fronted variety. The garbage collection services are provided by Sanitation, and make sure that you have your carts returned to the storage area by 10p.m. or you will face a well deserved fine! City of Milwaukee | Home As we will shortly find out, this is probably not something our birthday hero is overly fond of.

Michelle joined our beloved sisterhood in March 2009, and obviously didn’t much care for what she saw, given that she gave up the ghost a month later without troubling any of the throng with her thoughts on life, the universe, and whether that new bloke singing for Yes was really any good. This is especially disappointing, given that she listed her interests as EVERYTHING. And, she does actually have her fingers in quite a few pies. Our Michelle is what can only be described as a True Red White and Blue Entrepreneur, or Capitalist Pig Dog as Kim Porky Wrong Un would no doubt describe her in despatches to the proletariat.

Take a look at her SeparatedOut page, where she states her business as that of government procurement Michelle Keshel - CEO & Founder - SAS GPS - Government Procurement Solutions | LinkedIn Yep, this is the line of business so beloved by Tony Blair that it is rumoured that he flogged his mother’s knickers to the highest bidder back in the day, the process whereby monopolistic government work can be outsourced and run by, erm, monopolistic private firms. Let us examine her firms website to see what bargains are available to the moneyed amongst our prog throng Government Proposal Writting Services- $30 BIllion Won For Our Clients I personally, having been a bog and car park monitor, or Senior Responsible Manager as we call them, at a now closed government building in Wales am especially interested in the Facilities Management gig of The National Emergency Training Center. And, you can apply for all of these lucrative contracts safe in the knowledge that you are dealing with a “fearless leader” in Michelle. No, really. It must be true, because it says so on her SadBook page Say hello to SAS-GPS fearless... - Sales Automation Support | Facebook

And what also sets Michelle apart from her peers is that she is a pucker libertarian. She appeared in The Wisconsin Blue Book of 1999 as an alternate candidate for election in the 9th District for The State Executive Committee as a Libertarian Party of Wisconsin candidate. Now, I don’t know about you lot outside of The Land of the Free, but whilst I was aware there was a LP in Americaland, here in Blighty the media only really provide coverage to the elephant and donkey parties, aside from the odd barking mad billionaire who decides to have a ginormous ego-trip, er sorry, run for President.

Therefore, in keeping with many of the recent US political comments on the forum recently, let us take a look at said libertarians. Are they any good? Should they get your vote? Well, certainly in Iowa County Ward 2, the good electors placed their trust in a wonderfully beardy type in Christopher Clark as their alderperson. Should there be more?

Well, very excitingly for those of you already in town for Black Restaurant week, you can hop along to Eau Claire on April 24 for the annual LPWI fundraising raffle at the State Convention, although I would imagine that this might be a difficult thing to organise if a libertarian attending demanded raffle number 101, say, even though number 44 was next on the sheet. Actually, looking at the “libertarian positions” Libertarian Party of Wisconsin I am somewhat astounded that in a country which supposedly places the individual above all else, especially the state machinery, that they don’t do rather better. Can any of our Yankee Doodle brethren explain why this might be? I mean, what can you possibly object to here?; “The Libertarian Party is committed to America’s heritage of freedom: individual liberty and personal responsibility, a free-market economy of abundance and prosperity, a foreign policy of non-intervention, peace and free trade”. If everybody knew about this lot, President Uncle Joe Stalin would most certainly have cause for concern!

So! We wish our departed sister Michelle a very happy birthday! Keep that flag flying fearlessly! If there are any cheap deals going, be sure to contact me via David Cameron - he needs all the help he can get at the moment! **

In other Proggerland news, it is a pleasure to wish AFlowerKingCrimson a very happy 51st birthday all the way over in Philly. Mike has been a prolific and wonderful member of our publicly quoted brethren since October 2016. Happy birthday, Sir!

**for those of you who do not follow the news, simply Google “David Cameron Greensill” for the latest hilarious lobbying scandal here in Blighty. Couldn’t happen to a nicer tit.  

Mr Moose, or Paul J Hausleben as he was named all those years ago, registered on our collective throng in December 2009, and lasted until August 2012, only bothering the prog masses with his opinion the once, which was to provide us with his Tull Top Ten. The lack of participation from this chap is, as shall be made clear, a bit of a shame.

When he joined, Paul gave his occupation as Facility Management, and his interests as prog, ham radio, football, and hockey.

Before we turn to the extremely interesting development of our departed brother, a word about his chosen occupation all the way back in 2009. Facility Management is one of those glorious corporate speak phrases wholly designed to bamboozle the proletariat into thinking something is a lot grander, and certainly better, than it is in the reality of most personages life. Because, at the end of the day, FM, as we surely must reduce it to its component acronym, is, amongst other essential duties, bog cleaning, ensuring that there are sufficient car park spaces for the workers, cleaning desktops and computers, and generally ensuring that the building in which people live and or work is of a sufficient statutory standard to escape the clutches of all them local ‘elf and safety wallahs. Undoubtedly, when a FM professional comes home of an evening, and his/her/they other half asks them what sort of a day they had, the response “I transformed the through flow of the essential diuretic systems” sounds a bloody sight better than “the f**king bogs were blocked, and I had to spend all day shoving poles down them”. Language is, of course, everything!

But, talking of transformation, this is precisely what Paul has done. For our former janitor is an author! Yes, someone who writes and gets his work published, and very prolific he is too. Take a look at his Bezos site entry; http://www.amazon.com/Paul-John-Hausleben/e/B00B7JCGXW%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share His bio states that he started writing part-time for a prog rock website, but I have been unable to find out where, so over to any of you who might remember him. Here he is on Bonreads; Paul John Hausleben (Author of Flying)

And before we find out even more reason why Paul should be inaugurated into the Temple of Heroes, let us see if his works are rated. Here is a link to a Barnes & Noble blurb of “Flying: A Story About True Heroes”. Flying. A Story About True Heroes by Paul John Hausleben | NOOK Book (eBook) | Barnes & Noble®

However, Paul deserves our support for even more reason, because he is clearly a chap for whom the thirsty prog throng should support very strongly. Prog fans are a discerning bunch, and not for us the gassy sh*te of Bud, Carling, Worthy Creamflow and etc. Oh, no. Only the best for us, proper ale, and Paul, it turns out, is the owner of the publishing house “God Bless The Keg” LLC, a company name to be truly proud of. Here is their website God Bless the Keg Publishing LLC, and from there you can take a link to the BrewersDroopBook page https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Publisher/God-Bless-the-Keg-Publishing-LLC-101457688499967/

They are based in Henrico, Virginia, a town of 331,000 souls. Regrettably, the town website is down, so no essential Janitorial information can be imparted to you.

So! Happy birthday, Paul. Let’s have a novel about this! Cottage Delight Old Farts Ale Alcohol - 500ml (CD760741)

Elsewhere in current collab news, it is a great pleasure to wish phlake, or Erik Paulson, a very happy 42nd birthday in Norway. Erik has been visiting our fjords since 2009, and is a member of that fine outfit Arabs in Aspic Arabs in Aspic - Home They are a highly rated heavy prog outfit on our site ARABS IN ASPIC discography and reviewsTale a listen to I Vow to Thee, My Screen and enjoy! https://youtu.be/KbymWd_wQIM

We also have a couple of Prog Reviewers celebrating their special day today, namely russellk and obiter, neither of whom have visited the forum for some time, but it does not prevent us from wishing them felicitations and love! Once a PA brother, always a PA brother! 

Terry G, or Terry Garrett as his parents very wisely named him 71 years ago, is a true veteran of “the scene”. He joined our spaced out throng in May 2005, and stayed for almost four years. When he joined, he was a telecoms engineer, and listed his interests as music, chess, gardening, and computers. So far, so relatively humdrum.

But, a look at one of the posts he shared with us gives a clue as to his activities when men were men, cows were cows, and each were particularly happy with that exalted status in life. In what will not be the first instance of mistaken identity running through today’s post, take a look at his very excited contribution of 17 March 2009 at the announcement that Comus had announced a tour of the Land of the Free that year; http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=56413 Our Terry, and this was a very easy mistake to make, had mistook our fine and highly regarded SC, Jim “Finnforest”, for Bobbie Watson herself from those exalted hairy, beardy types COMUS discography and reviews Said tour was, unfortunately, and in an eerie portent of the past twelve months, cancelled, and rearranged for the following year. Jim did not, I am afraid, carry on with the joke, and Terry left our shores never to be seen again until today, no doubt bitterly disappointed that “Bobbie” didn’t have the good grace to bother with a reply.

His signature was Ayup, and this, rather than being the greeting from somebody of the Northern English persuasion, as in “Ayup, lad, how’s tha today?”, was the name of the band he played in Sevenoaks, Kent, all the way back in 1964, the year that Mummy Laz proudly pushed your author out. The only other band member I have found of the list is Chris Cross (Allen), who went on to become the bass guitarist in Ultravox. No, really. Here is his WikiVienna page; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Cross 

Regrettably, we have no trace of the boys performing on the world wide inter web. Scroll down on this forum on 23 January 2009 to see our hero with more reminiscing, and Terence Ruffle’s fascinating reports of classic gigs Terence Ruffle » Emerson, Lake and Palmer at the Oval September 30th 1972

So, what is our hero up to now? Well, he retired from working for British Telecom (old enough to remember when it was, pre-privatisation, The Post Office) in 2008, and since then has simply been enjoying himself Terry Garrett - Retired - Retired and enjoying time to pursue personal interests and family | LinkedIn

So! Happy birthday, Terry! It is a pleasure to be able to delve into, even for the briefest of time, the life of an old music stalwart, who was there and actually did it back in the day, before leading what I am sure was a fine family life!

In other news, it is a great pleasure to announce the 42nd birthday of apps79, an SC who I did work with briefly when we were both collabs on the neo-prog team. He hasn’t been around here for a wee while, but apps has, in fact, created a major storm hereabouts on the very day of his birthday. Yes! Look! http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=28343&PN=258 Our  wonderful new member of the faithful, Mr Wintertree, had posted to complain that the exalted brother apps, in his review of The Winter Tree album, accused the band of plagiarism. MAGUS / THE WINTER TREE The Winter Tree music review by apps79 

In the interests of journalistic balance and fairness, the PABT did try to contact The Winter Tree’s keyboardist for comment on this, but was informed that Mr Richard Wright sadly was no longer on this mortal coil. However, I was able to get ahold of their spokesperson, a Mr Guy Pratt of Messrs Wall & Co, who provided me with the following statement:

“My clients wholly refute any suggestion that their seminal albums Saucerful of Secrets and Meddle were taken from the music and lyrics of Pink Floyd, an act now only remembered by a very few obsessive types on Internet forums such as Progressive Noses. Winter Tree will continue to delight the world with their original material, including in 2021 The Final Cut. Further, I can today exclusively reveal that Andrew Laitres appears on the brand new Peter Gabriel album, Foxtrot. It is hoped that all such speculation will now cease, and any further attempts to compare my clients music with a bunch of clapped out old hippies will result in immediate legal action to stop all defamation of character”.

Happy birthday, apps!

By the way, those of you wondering what all the fuss is really about, can listen to two of Pink Floyd’s tracks from The Winter Tree on GoggleTube here;

https://youtu.be/Pttl8KpbCew Babylon

https://youtu.be/9n0UzsSokB0 Guardian Angel

Personally, I think they sound f**k all like The Winter Tree, but there you go.

Pip pip!