They told him, "don't you ever come around here!"

Here's that drawing of MJ I did, now that NMD is over.

Heal the world we live in/ save it for our children.

NATIONAL METAL DAY!!!

Hey everyone: Happy Veterans Day. I'm so glad that as far as I know, all of my friends who went on to serve in that horrible decade of turmoil called the '00s, that most--as far as I know, all--of my friends have returned. I couldn't possibly name all of them, but to Jesse, Josh and Raymond, if you're reading this, you're awesome and I'm glad to have you in my life.

Okay, but today being 11/11/11, it's also NATIONAL METAL DAY!!! Why? Because today goes to 11.

Ironically, I was drawing a picture of Michael Jackson, and I decided to glance over to my Facebook, to see one of my friends pointing this fact out and posting a video of Hatebreed. Not to be outdone, I posted a video of Black Sabbath, but then I realized, "hey genius! You haven't posted on your blog in a while," so I decided to do this sketch of Led Zeppelin.

I picked LZ because, well, I'm a fan of theirs (good reason) but also, they kind-of started the whole thing. I don't really think of them as strictly a "metal" band, as there are tons of songs of theirs that aren't metal at all, and even some of their heavier songs haven't aged as well as Sabbath's, so I think of them as more of a hard rock band who influenced metal.

That said, AT THE TIME, they'd certainly have been considered heavy metal for songs like, "Dazed And Confused," "Whole Lotta Love," "Immigrant Song," "Black Dog," "Kashmir" etc. but more importantly, songs that aren't so much "metal" or even "proto-metal"--"The Battle of Evermore," "Ramble On," "Going to California" "No Quarter" etc.--which are either acoustic or more like prog-rock--incorporated fantasy lyrics, which became an important part of the metal genre.

Still: all that proves is that Led Zep--like the Beatles or the Rolling Stones--covered a wide ground and are just as influential on groups like U2 or artists like Prince. The important thing isn't whether or not they'd still be considered "metal" today; the important thing is that they defined the genre in its infancy.

I decided, btw, to put the big, looming picture of John Bonham over the band since, well, he's dead; but also, it's so hard to create a decent composition of a band with the drummer in the back unless he's on a huge friggin' riser or something.