Mein Influence

Influences. People are influenced by different things. A child sees a picture, and that same child ends up being an artist or photographer. A girl sees her teacher, and becomes a physicist while a little boy joins the Joffrey Ballet. Everyone is influenced by someone or something and it becomes a part of their life. Mine? My influence is Rush...the band. It all started in my bedroom at 16 years old (hey, get yer head outta the gutter), after my dad and I dropped off my sister at her dorm at UCLA. Back in 1982, we had albums and I went through my sister's roommate's collection. She had Ozzy, Night Ranger and all the pop hits. She then had Signals by Rush. I asked if I could borrow it and she said yes. I then took care of the album and placed it on my record player. Subdivision came blaring out. The keyboard was loud and powerful and I said WOW! I was totally blown away! I played the song over and over again that I learned the lyrics in one night. I then learned the rest. Then came Grace Under Pressure but instead of going forward I went backwards and went to the first album, I read the credit and saw a thank you to Donna Halpern. My crush was named Donna too, but she was Japanese American. Oh well. I then bought EVERY album and then went to Power Windows. That's when my life changed:

1.	"The Big Money"	5:37
2.	"Grand Designs"	5:06
3.	"Manhattan Project"	5:07

I heard the Big Money and saw the video. I liked it. Then heard Grand Design. It was a great tune. Then I heard Manhattan Project. If you seen the video on my previous blog with Mike Malloy, then you know that I knew nothing about the Manhattan Project nor the Enola Gay. I thought it was a anagram for Alone Gay. A poor LGBTQ treated like crap and remaining in the closet. Boy was I wrong. I then found out what the Enola Gay was and my life changed. There are times I wished I didn't get into Rush. That the I stayed with the heavy metal bands, that I remained ignorant. But when my Asian American studies instructor schooled me about the Manhattan Project, I became mad. Mad that for 19 years of my life I was sheltered. Sheltered because of the past, the hatred, the evil done on my parents, family, people. That damned song opened my eyes and there was no putting the Jeanie back into the bottle.

The influence the band had on me was not the desire to learn to play drums as well as Neil Peart.


The influence the band had on me was not the desire to learn to play guitar as well as Alex Lifeson.



The influence the band had on me was not the desire to learn to play bass, keyboards or sing as well as Geddy Lee.


The influence the band had on me was and is to make this planet a better place to live. To make sure that no one, including the Asians from the Middle East go through what my family and my people went through. To make sure that Jews, Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Wiccans, Satanists, Thelemite, humanists, atheists, agnostics all live in harmony. That no one experience the hatred, the violence the evil Neil penned in Power Windows. I couldn't care less if Neil or anyone from Rush sees or comments on this blog, but I would like to thank them for opening my eyes to a whole new perspective in life. I became a liberal because I have seen the violence and evil, and the band Rush kick started my desire to become a liberal. Now I cannot stop and will not stop, until one day, when people look back at this blog or at Rush's song and say:

Manhattan Project? Is that where poor people live in New York???