Bear's Monthly Mayhem - September 2023!
Archived from BearWiseman.com
A month of grief is now behind me and I am feeling a little bit better. Unfortunately, I had a whole thing planned to mourn my bear cub, but because our house became plagued by the flu and I couldn’t do it with my partner home, it didn’t happen. I know he did some pretty fucked up things, but in the end, I just think that kid deserves to be remembered for the best of him and since I’m apparently the only one who knew the best of him, it’s up to me to make sure he has some sort of legacy. Fortunately, my partner did figure out that September 23rd was valtakunnallinen kuolleiden lasten muistopäivä [aka National Dead Children’s Remembrance Day], so I was able to take that and have a funeral/wake for my cub, with one friend stopping by to join in for a short while. Overall, steps have been taken to come to terms with this, so now all I need is time.
In less bummering news, for this year’s Ayreon show, I dragged my partner along with me. He’s not the biggest fan of the band in general, but we’ve watched “Ayreon Universe” enough times and listened to “The Source” and “The Human Equation” enough times that he was interested in the legend of these high-quality live performances, so he came along. I’m pleased to say that he had a great time and his good energy was actually saving me from some people in the crowd's bad energy. Indeed, he confessed that it was the best show he’s been to, even better than Devin Townsend at the ancient theater in Plovdiv, which was cool but we couldn’t hear the orchestra at all, which was really unfortunate (and even more so that they didn’t fix this in post). So fingers crossed that next time, he’ll join again! Definitely check out the live report from that show if you weren’t able to attend, since I have been told that I write the best reviews of these shows!
Otherwise, I’ve been taking it easier this month overall, especially with the journalism. Pihka Is My Name was, of course, a must-review, since they were the most recent special geeks on my podcast (check below for the episode link!) and because I really enjoy their music. I also had to continue my series of looks-back on Iron Maiden’s discography, so this month’s inclusion was “Dance of Death,” which I think is actually a pretty great album, but has its issues (mainly in the cover art, muahaha - read that review to know what I’m talking about if you haven’t already heard this tale).
Speaking of Pihka Is My Name, I also started a Ko-Fi page where I can be hired to do commissions of pixel art in cross-stitch style. I love this because I am an anti-plastic hippy who really hates perlers because they are just creating plastic waste in the long-run, so having a custom-made bit of stitchwork is, as far as I’m concerned, way cooler, because you can sew them onto anything - your coat, a pillow, your bags/luggage, or you can just hang them on your wall. You can check me out over here: https://ko-fi.com/bearwiseman
October should be interesting, because I’ve decided to have some form of sun-circuit event with the people who’ve been putting effort into being good friends to me/new people I’m interested in getting to know better, so hopefully I break the curse of 2016 with this. Otherwise, I hope everyone enjoys the onset of fall! Catch you next month, and stay geeky!
Don’t forget that this year’s Best of 2023 playlist can be found below as well! It has been culled a bit in recent months!
GATHERING OF GEEKS (S01E12) ft. Pihka Is My Name
LIVE REPORT: Ayreon: Live Beneath the Waves @ 013 Poppodium, Tilburg
FESTIVAL REPORT: Dark River Festival - Day 1 @ Kotka
FESTIVAL REPORT: Dark River Festival - Day 2 @ Kotka
FESTIVAL REPORT: Dark River Festival - Day 3 @ Kotka
ALBUM REVIEW: Pihka Is My Name - Caller Unknown
ANNIVERSARY REVIEW: Iron Maiden - Dance of Death