There Was a Time...

There was a time, when I was a little tyke, when I desperately wanted a dog...

My folks wouldn't get me one for the longest time. We were living in Brooklyn apartments where we couldn't keep pets. When we moved into a big house in the suburbs, other excuses always seemed to creep up to delay the glorious day I could take home my dream dog. Despite my parents' aggressive dog-blocking practices, I would read everything there was to read about dogs. Books about different breeds, books about dog-training, books about the psychological benefits of children growing up with pets.

Eventually, I stopped bitching and moaning about wanting a dog. It's not that I stopped wanting one—I just got tired of banging my head against the brick wall for it.

Of course, that's when my parents decided to let me get one. (In an attempt to draw attention away from their failing marriage, no doubt.) As great as getting that dog was, it probably would've been a greater thrill to have gotten it a few years earlier, at the height of my mania.

Now, before you all leap to the obvious parallel story, let me say that I love Chinese Democracy: it is the ambitious and flawed gem that I always hoped it could be. Would I have been more excited to get it a few years earlier, at the height of my Guns N' Roses mania? Of course. What the fuck kind of question is that?? But I am fine with getting it now. And as with all things, perhaps this happened for a reason.

What I am less than pleased with is the lackluster manner in which this "highly anticipated" album has finally been released.

Specifically, BEST BUY's shitty, passive release of the album on a Sunday. I know the music industry's changed significantly over the years and the album's getting some nice online heat... but after all these years, I was hoping for something bigger. A music video, an appearance on Saturday Night Live, something with a few fireworks.

Hopefully, we'll get some of these things in the coming months...

I know there's a lot of mixed to negative shit out there on the album and the "so-called" band, but I'm heartened by the more positive stuff...

Recording with Axl:

He had a firm handshake and looked you straight in the eye. It was all vocal overdubs or vocal leads. He would move from song to song, working on different parts. He was jumping about, but he knew exactly what he wanted...

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