Did anyone else notice that dirt dog posted an insensitive, way-too-soon* joke about Dimebag to his site? Well, he took it down, but it said something like "I can't make it to the Bonds/A-Rod signing, because I'll be at Dimebag's wake." And there was a link to the story of this man getting shot and killed on stage by a psycho, who also shot a bunch of other people before he himself was shot dead, which apparently was a big joke to dessert dog.

Great job, dog. You're so sensitive to the girl who got shot at Fenway, and the football player turned soldier who got shot by other American troops, but a guy with long hair and tattoos and a funny name gets shot and killed in front of his brother, while trying to entertain people, and suddenly it's joke-a-thon '82 at dirtdogs HQ.

People must have complained, because he took it down.

If you're like me, and most American music fans, you were into metal before you got into punk before you got into metal again before you realized music is music, and it's okay to like anything, no matter what trendy label it's given or broad category it's thrown into. That said, as much as I make fun of the more macho-style metal, Dimebag was responsible for some of the most kick-proverbial-ass metal riffs of all time. And while the singer of Pantera (this guy's well-known former band) literally used to haunt me in my nightmares (I think that's what he was going for), I have to admit they had some pretty awesome tunes. Pat & I used to play that song "Walk," at Pac-Men practice. "Are you talkin' to me? Are you talkin' to maaaaaaaay?" Surely you know the tune.

Anyway, as someone who plays music in front of people, it's just pretty scary to think that someone might come up and shoot you while you're playing, all for doing nothing but trying to do something fun and hopefully entertaining for people who were nice enough to listen to what you're playing.

I think of dirt dog as the dad in that Twisted Sister video. The kid's playing guitar in his room, and the dad comes in and yells, "I carried an M-16! And you carry that, that, that TWANGER!!"

About that Bonds/A-Rod thing: It's this thing in NYC where you pay thousands of dollars to get in and can have those two losers sign stuff, and you get a goodie bag of "corporate gifts," like a "timepiece." I think that means a watch. The FUNNIEST thing about this is that ESPN radio is sponsoring this event, and Michael Kay is emceeing it. So Kay's gotta read these "serious" ads about this event that he can't possibly support. But he reads them all prim and proper-like, while his goofball producers are probably biting their tongues while Kay is contractually forced to refer to Bonds as a great athlete, and talk about how "many consider this to be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity." And it only costs $7500 to get in! This is something that all the other talk show hosts in town are making fun of, and the jokester Kay doesn't get to because he's on the station that's hosting it. Awesome.


*When I say "way-too-soon," I'm referring to the American tradition of giving a little cushion between tragedy and jokes about that tragedy. A cushion which is getting smaller and smaller. The Titanic "ride"--slide down the angled, sinking inflatable ship to your death, kids!--at the carnival that comes to the Danbury Mall every summer makes me wonder how long it'll be before kids are taking the "World Trade Center Plunge" at Disney World. There was also a Family Guy episode where the dog, Brian, makes a joke about FDR being in a wheelchair. When the rest of the family groans at his joke, he says, "What? Too soon?"