The PA Happy Birthday Thread

So! Let us first pay homage to our very dear friend, jak_kr0, or Jaxon Crow as his parents imaginatively named him 45 years ago today. When he registered, Jaxon listed his whereabouts as Richmond, California, that bastion of all things liberal and tech. Their website shows some gorgeous photographs Richmond, CA - Official Website | Official Website and I am extremely glad to report that residents can dob their naughty neighbours and environmentally dubious residents onto the naughty step by calling the Graffiti, Illegal Dumping, and Blight Hotline. Quite right, too. Crucifixion is far too good for folk like that. Residents can also sleep easy in their beds by being reassured of the quality solid waste and recycling services provided to them not by the council, but by Republic Services (director and majority shareholder D Corleone). 

When he registered as a callow 34 year old in 2009, staying with the brethren for all of half an hour, our friend listed his occupation as stage lighting, and his interest as, I quote, “Your Mom!!”. Now, I don’t know about all of you, but I have to state that it is not the most obvious method of endearing oneself to the throbbing throng by announcing that you want to perform ungodly acts with their mother. Especially when his signature also reads KILL! KILL! KILL!, which doesn’t exactly read as much of a reason for us to call mum and advise her to hotfoot over to Richmond immediately to avail herself of Jaxon’s services, whether dad approves or not.

It is, though, his post which ought to enter prog immortality, and, I am afraid, for all the wrong reasons. http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=62003 We will investigate said Ten Benson momentarily, but what struck me about his “recommendation” was his description of the said band as “pikeys”. Now, I don’t know about the good folk of Richmond, but here in Blighty, Pikey is a rather derogatory term for those of the travelling community persuasion, or gypsies as we called them in slightly less enlightened times. Indeed, our very good friend Chopper rightly called Jaxon out for this, and he was never heard of again.

So. What of Ten Benson? Well, they are a real outfit, described as “psychedelic hillbillies”, whatever they are, and here is their site, and what a fine hairy looking pair they are, too! Ten Benson What’s more, they even rank as exalted enough to warrant an entry on the saintly John Peel fandom site; Ten Benson | John Peel Wiki | FandomHere for your undoubted enjoyment is, for the day this is posted, the appropriately named Hell This Hour, something which would surely figure as a repeated track on The Beverley Hillbillies Show https://youtu.be/dK8szSLzhk0 Have a listen to their other stuff. Utterly barking!

As for Jaxon, there are a few hits on the intertit, but I cannot be confident that any of them are our man, so he will have to be classed as Missing In Action, I am afraid. It does not, though, stop us from wishing him a very happy birthday! Hey, Jaxon! Leave Stella at Number 69 alone!

We don’t have any present collabs to report to you today, but we do have a couple of chaps who many of you amongst the pilgrims to the Temple of Prog will be very familiar with, so without further ado, let us wish a very happy birthday to Prognaut. Ron Fuchs, the founder of that site, is 55 today, but owing to illness, the site hasn’t been updated in some time. Ron would appear to have had a heart attack. ProgNaut.com | "a progressive music CD & DVD reviews from a fan's perspective" He is originally from Burbank, but relocated to Maine to be with the love of his life, which is one hell of a distance to go, and somewhat more inspirational than Jaxon’s dubious utterances. He is still active on SadTogetherBook, In Prog We Trust | Facebook and he joins a growing number of prog luminaries in having a GoggleTube site doing interviews and stuff. Here he is talking to those wonderful chaps from Galahad https://youtu.be/ygklpcw6U28

He also has an InstantKilo site at Ron Fuchs (@fuchs_ron) • Instagram photos and videos

Happy birthday, Ron!

And last, but not least, WalterOCK, or Walter Pini, celebrates his 59th birthday in Italy today. Walter is a member of Nuova Era, a highly rated RPI Band, and here is their PA page NUOVA ERA discography and reviews

Happy Easter everyone. 

For I present to you csmosher, or Craig Mosher as his parents named him in the mosh pit of the local maternity ward 59 years ago today.

Our Craig joined the beloved prog pilgrims in February 2009, and sadly only shared his thoughts with us the once, this on the merits of Yes, but he did, to be fair to him, have to follow a Titan of the site with his opinion, and, in all probability, got rather star struck, because we never saw him again http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=67599&PN=2 

All we had to go on aside from an appreciation of Yes, was the fact that Mr Mosh Pit was a high school teacher from California. So, what more can we learn about our departed brother?

Well, Craig is the ideal candidate for birthday immortality on Easter weekend. Let us take a look at his JoinedTogetherOut page; Craig Mosher - International Students, Inc. - Employed | LinkedIn Craig works for Loyola Marymount University in The City of Angels, and here is their site where you will be very pleased to note that you can create the world you want to live in, which particularly interests me, as I would like to have a world in which there were state subsidised prog gigs in rural West Wales on a weekly basis to save me having to travel god knows how many miles simply to see a band. I’m packing my bags as I type! Loyola Marymount University

But of more relevance to today’s story is the fact that Mosher moshes along with Da Good Yoof in Da Hood as part of the International Student Ministry at UCLA, and here, featuring at the top of the page a wondrous assembly of happy looking personages, is their IconBook page; International Graduate Student Ministry at UCLA - Home | Facebook I was particularly interested in the 11 March entry, where pilgrims were invited to a Zoom seminar to discuss Passover, and how we all are in need of a Passover lamb (my wife, disappointingly, did beef for our Sunday lunch last week). Over here in Blighty, the Church of England, snowflakes all, had to withdraw a link to a Sedar menu put up by one of its vicars, and apologise for any offence caused owing to “misappropriation of Jewish values and culture”. The mind doth, indeed, truly boggle at the inherent stupidity of mankind, but at least they are made of sterner stuff over in LA. And, lastly, for those of you who wish to join in a remote, Covid-secure, celebration of the resurrection tomorrow, you can do so from a link on their website, here International Graduate Student Ministry - Christian Fellowship at UCLA

So! We wish a very happy birthday to our believer! No Dimebar Easter eggies for him!

In present collab news, we wish a very happy birthday to our very good friend, Argo2112. Mike celebrates his 56th birthday today, and he has been a steady and knowledgeable contributor in the Prog Temple for nearly four years now. Happy birthday, sir! 

So, rather then an exploration of the world of clebs, why don’t we explore a chap who has moved from the backwaters of The Land of the Free to one of the busiest urban centres on the planet, and see just why he has taken such a journey?

Our hero today actually registered with the site twice. His first incarnation was as maxmontgomery08, so named because his name is Max Montgomery and he joined the brethren in, well, 2008. Clever, eh? He celebrates his 31st birthday today, and when he registered he gave his location as Kansas City, and listed his interests as music, photography, writing, and “screwing with people’s head”. Now, as long-standing members here will know, donking with some personages heads hereabouts is not a particularly difficult thing to do, but, sadly, Max didn’t  bother to insert said dong into anybody’s cranium on his first visit.

It was a wee bit better second time around, although his contributions as maxiepad2000 were irritatingly sensible when he joined in March 2009, impressing our Lord Damo himself with some Japanese prog, and discovering Trili (no, me neither) from the New Bands Suggestions thread. Trili were an ‘eavy  prog outfit from Puerto Rico of all places TRILI discography and reviews As you can see, they impressed our Raff with their Riffs, and here is their StaySpace site for those of you who can figure out how to play something on the blasted thing https://myspace.com/trili 

Anyhoo, Max gave his precise location as Prairie Village, which is by Kansas City. It has a grand total of 21.5 thousand souls living there, and, as you can see, it is “The Star of Kansas City” City of Prairie Village | Home I am very glad to report that this is yet another location whose trash services are provided by our old friends at Republic Services.

And what of our friend now? Well, he has moved up in the world. He is now a Client Service Associate, the glue which holds an advisory service business together, what with making coffee and shining the shoes of all those executives. Max Montgomery - Client Service Associate - UBS | LinkedIn  Max undertakes these vital duties at UBS, that noble banking institution which is in no way connected with anything as nasty or deceitful such as money laundering or tax evasion for the wealthy. And, he moved to Chicago, that wonderfully crime free metropolis of 2.71 million souls.

Our Max started off his working life as a Lifeguard at The Carriage Club back home in Dorothytown. Here it is; Home - Carriage Club Frankly, if I had the job of licking backsides of the wealthy, I would much rather be doing it at the country club as opposed to the bank, but, as we know, it really does take all sorts to make our crazy world go around.

So! We wish a very happy birthday to Max! He lives in our kind of town!

Elsewhere, no present collab news to report.

I can, however, leave you tonight with images of our not quite nailed on candidates mentioned at the top.

Here is one for the chaps, or for those ladies of the same-sex persuasion;  Lara Cardoso | Atriz, Apresentadora e Comediante

And here is one for the ladies, or, naturally, those chaps of the same-chap persuasion; https://www.facebook.com/dante.dio2016/ 

Eye candy for the masses! The mission statement of PABT!