The PA Happy Birthday Thread

But, no, these luminaries will have to wait for another year, for today I want us to ponder on just how bloody desperate some people are to flog us their wares, or to attract potential clients in order to provide them with undoubtedly dodgy financial products. Also, do these people really imagine that every time a new member registers on the site, said newbie is trumpeted to every single other member who rush to find out who the lovely new colleague is?

Well, someone should tell these people that the only person on this site who takes the time to find out precisely who these people are is yours truly, and, inevitably, it is sometime after the event of joining. However, if our good friend kes1e wanted some attention and potential clients when he joined our delightful menagerie in September 2008 for all of less than two hours, well he got his wish, albeit 12 and a bit years later.

Because our very good friend, Rahim Keshwani, is 34 today, and is celebrating his special day in that melting pot of global capitalism, Toronto, Ontario. This is pertinent to today’s story, because Rahim didn’t provide us with any homepage, signature, or occupation with which to titillate our interest. In fact, aside from registering, he did absolutely f**k all else, and left little old me, all these years later, to figure out just who he is and what he does with his life.

So, I can only imagine that our money-grabbing merchant banker - Urban Dictionary: merchant banker must have thought that someone would contact him in an attempt to garner more information before pouncing upon said forum officer to flog him/her his wares. For Rahim is a Senior Financial Adviser at that well-respected institution, Scotiabank Rahim Keshwani - Senior Financial Advisor - Scotiabank | Business Profile | Apollo.io Now, I really must urge all readers of this post NOT to be tempted to contact Rahim and place your hard-earned in his institution’s bank pocket, because it is well known that proggers are absolutely honest as the day is long, and would never condone anything smelling of such disgusting activity as offshore tax evasion. Yep, you guessed it, this is what said Scotiabank are pretty well known for in Mountieland 1 tax haven, 3 of Canada’s biggest banks, 2,000 offshore companies | The Star

So, Rahim. Enjoy your day, old chap! But, please, don’t expect any of our cohorts to put any of their cash your way. Some of us have scruples!

Oh, by the way, simply because I am in a mischievous mood this evening, an amusing story around the urban slang for merchant banker. Back in the 1990’s, I was watching a Football League Cup match on telly (soccer, not that armour laden stuff Mr and Mrs Marine watch). Giving us the benefit of his wisdom pre-match from the touch line was the ubiquitous Gary Newbon, then merely a commentator, but later to become head of ITV Sport in Britain. He had very large glasses, and spoke quite a lot of bollocks for a living. The crowd, seeing him punditing, started singing, very loudly, “Gary Newbon. He’s a w**ker, he’s a w**ker” and so on and so forth in the manner footies fans are renowned for. The tv link cut back to the studio, where an embarrassed presenter turned to his star pundit in the studio, the late, great Jimmy Greaves, one of the finest footballers of all time. Greaves smiled, and said....”I didn’t know Gary was a merchant banker”. The entire studio collapsed into laughter and we were treated then to an extended advert break. Strange, but true, friends!

In current collab news, we wish a very happy 28th birthday to SC Sheavy, or Alex Newman as he is no doubt called in the saloons of Alabama. All the best, sir!

Lucas Biela, another SC, is 41 today and no doubt enjoying a glass off red in Francais as I speak. Best to you, sir! 

We also have a couple of the usual musical suspects, lecturers, and all sorts.

However, as you all know by now, the primary purpose here is to find out a little bit more about the long lost personages who register with our site for no apparent reason other than to flog us stuff,  but not really making that much of an effort. In fact, all of the effort comes on my part, but no matter! They came, they saw, and they pissed off without a trace, only to be rediscovered years later.

Goldvision_2010 joined our beloved site in, erm, 2005. Hicham hails from that exceptionally well known hotbed of prog music, Morocco. He stayed here for less than one minute, and his homepage link is no longer even active. Did that deter me? Did it ‘eck as like!

Our dearly departed friend, Hicham Laaziz is 34 today. Actually, given his name, which I researched today, he could well be a long lost ancestral cousin of Mr Laz. You know. Laaziz. Laz. Near enough to satisfy my excited mind, certainly after a couple of pints of the amber nectar.

The forum name gives us a clue as to Hicham’s nefarious activities in joining the long list of salesman trying to part us lovely proggers with our hard earned. For Goldvision is a digital Customer Relations Manager. Yes, really, there is such a thing. https://www.gold-vision.com/home/ Your CRM. Your Way. Intelligent by Design. Gold Vision is a more reliable CRM. Well, friends, it has got your host utterly hooked. I mean, how did I ever manage without one? If I had known about Hicham’s wares in 2005, I would probably be running the bloody country by now. Take a long look, as I have, at the products, services, and resources available to you from this wondrous contraption. Why, the thing will even give you a shave of a morning if you ask it nicely. You can even use it to accelerate your ABM journey! So, undoubtedly used frequently by Messrs Anderson, Buford, and Moraz!

Here is our friend on ShrinkedIn should you ever wish to connect hicham laaziz - 10000 - GoldVision, LLC | LinkedIn 

The moral to all of this? Well, if Gold Vision supply just one of you lovely people with their digital dogsbody, it will have been well worth their corporate representative in faraway Morocco spending his one minute registering with the finest, and infinitely most popular (don’t believe what they say at Prog Ears, folks!) prog site on planet Earth almost 16 years ago as a callow young 18 year old eager to climb up that career mountain that is the world of digital corporate bollocks.

So! Happy Birthday (my iPad doesn’t do Arabic, regrettably) Hicham! Don’t be drinking to celebrate! The Prophet isn’t particularly keen on that sort of thing you know - leave it to us infidels on your behalf!

Elsewhere in PA land, today is a biggie. Greg, or The Dark Elf as his mom and dad would surely have christened him 61 years ago today had they only listened to his gurgles properly, is celebrating his happy day as we speak in Michigan. He is against occupations and encroachments, and Mr Laz is absolutely with him on that score. Greg is a prolific and highly valued contributor in these parts. Happy birthday, sir! You can get drunk, because The Prophet doesn’t interfere too much in The Land of the Free!  

On a slightly serious note, recent years have seen an explosion in the popularity of prog in the frozen wastelands of our continent, with Polish bands such as Riverside leading the charge, and one unfortunate side effect of Brexit is the fact that touring for acts such as Pendragon over there, where they are very popular, will be made somewhat more difficult. Many artists have, indeed, recently lobbied the government over the Visa issue, which we hope is resolved soon.

So, let us first give a huge shout out to Radoslav. Radek Ratomski is 36 today, and is the producer of Polish orchestral prog maestros, Lebowski, a damned fine band whose debut Cinematic is still a Lazland favourite. Note to self. Must listen to the follow up. LEBOWSKI discography and reviews  Happy birthday, sir!

Next, we say a very loud zdravstvuy to our very needy friend, School of Rock, or Tim as his parents named him in a not particularly Russian fashion 34 years ago today.  Tim entered our generous brethren in May 2005, and posted just the twice, both times asking the assembled prog lords of PA for hard cash Progressive Rock Music Forum - Search Results - this to purchase a bass guitar, because, you know, times are rather tough in Syberia (sic). One wag suggested that Tim might want to tap Roman Abramovitch for a few roubles prior to bothering us poor lot, very sensibly in my opinion. What has become of our destitute friend, we can only really guess at.

Next, we have Deaf. Ion celebrates his special 35th birthday all the way from Chisniau in Moldova, that stronghold of modern progressive rock. In fact, a little bit of research shows that our sonically challenged friend is, in fact, part of Self Programmed Deaf, who are a “groovy deathcore metal band” from said Moldova Self Programmed Deaf - Home | Facebook Have a listen to this cheering piece, just the topic for a cold lockdown Saturday afternoon! https://youtu.be/hvU6yXn0IZQ

Pistuka77 is 44 today, and is better known to Mummy and Daddy as Szántó Istvá. Regrettably, I cannot find a trace of this dearly departed member.

And last, but most certainly not least, we send our very best PA felicitations to Arbrzo, which appears to be a rough Polish translation of the Spanish for hug. Bless! His real name is Arkadiusz, and he is 48 today. Our Polish groovster is yet another chap who registered in the hallowed halls of Prog Wonderland, and stayed for less than ten minutes without so much as even bothering to contemplate being reported in the Forum Abuse Discussion Thread. Slackers! Actually, I think that Arkadiusz is yet another muso who thought that registration alone would bring a flock of eager musical students rushing to buy his wares, because he is still quite active. His rather good, sort of trancy, psych can be heard at arkadiusz. | Arkadiusz | Free Listening on SoundCloud And if any of you are nature lovers, as opposed to merely smoking Mother Nature, you can make an appointment and connect with our friend in a very mindful way on Sadbook at Arkadiusz - Home | Facebook

So, let us shout out loudly and proudly Sto Lat to our very good friend! Tree huggers of the world, unite and take over!

In current collab news, we say many happy returns to our mighty friend Bosh66. Chris Dawson from ‘oop North in Bolton, where smoke stacks are proper stacks unlike those southern softy versions, is 55 today, and an excellent contributor to our beloved site. Happy birthday, sir!

Lastly, Jonbirion, or Jonathan Bar Yehuda, is celebrating his 61st in lovely Israel today, hopefully vaccined up and getting properly drunk! Jonathan joined us in 2006, and is still active, although he has only posted SIX times in all that period. Hey man. That is some serious slacking. Get on that keyboard a wee bit more often!