As the Violent Femmes used to say, "Kiss off"


Every generation has their revelation. However, this unmasking was not planned by the band in question.


Nearly 200,000 Finns have signed an online petition to express their dismay after tabloid magazines published pictures of Eurovision winners Lordi out of their trademark monster suits.

Though viewers around the world were curious about the real identity of the five monsters who shot to fame with their song "Hard Rock Hallelujah," many Finns were annoyed to have them unmasked and had signed the petition by Friday.

The band had asked media not to run pictures of them out of character....

Band leader Mr Lordi is recognizable to millions around the world since achieving victory in a silver monster suit, with horns and blazing red eyes.

But Tomi Putaansuu, as he is also known, was revealed to be a bespectacled 32-year-old with long brown hair and a goatee, when his picture was published in the magazine 7 paivaa (7 days) this week.



But oldsters like me (heh..."oldsters"...that's neato) remember the last big unmasking.


When KISS unmasked, it was kind of interesting. There was a certain element of shock that this band that looked, sounded and acted like a bunch of dumb New York wog guys with hairy chests, were in fact, a bunch of dumb, New York wog guys with hairy chests.


Well, in a sense. But you have to get to New York to be a New York guy.


Chaim Witz was born in Haifa, Israel, on August 25, 1949. The son of Florence and Feri Witz, Gene entered a newly independent Israel, a tough small country surrounded by enemies. From the end of the Second World War, Israel became the destination for many of the few remaing Jews, those who had survived the Holocaust in Europe, and those who wanted to escape the entrenchment of the Soviet sphere of influence and control in the East. It was from here that Florence, a Hungarian survivor of the Nazi concentration camps, emigrated, though whether she had married Gene's father by that time is unclear. Of Gene's father little is known, apart from his occupation as a carpenter. Gene's parents divorced in 1954 and in 1958 Gene and his mother emigrated to America, landing at LaGuardia Airport after surviving the trauma of a one-stop flight on which Gene threw up twice, where she found work at a dress making factory. Living in Williamsburg, in Brooklyn, NY, Gene started to learn English. While years later, in 1978, Gene would record "When You Wish Upon A Star", as a tip-of-the-hat to Disney, an early aid for his learning the language of his adopted country, Gene also used commercials and televison as learning aids though it is not suprising that this sort of media caught the attention of young Gene who at that point only spoke Hebrew, Spanish, Turkish and Hungarian! But Disney would have a more profound effect on the young man. "I was starting to learn English by watching TV", recounts Gene in a Goldmine interview with Ken Sharp, "but certainly when I saw Pinocchio I thought the little cricket was talking to me. 'You, Gene, I'm talking to you. When you wish upon a star your dreams come true'".


Of course, Gene Simmons had some pretty interesting dreams.

From the Ontario Empoblog (Latest OVVA news here)

Comments

carmilevy said…
I've always respected Gene Simmons for going beyond the rock-star-stereotype that defined his generation.

He's got some serious acting chops, too.
Ontario Emperor said…
Simmon's IMDB profile is here. This movie looks intriguing:

This movie features a character who is supposed to be the descendant of the character played Steve McQueen in the television series of the same name. And like McQueen's Josh Randall, Hauer's Nick Randall is also a bounty. But also an ex-CIA operative, who is asked by his former employer to help them track down a terrorrist, Malak Al Rahim, who is in the country, and has already made a move. But he is also looking for Randall, and the people, whom Randall is working for, is telling Malak, where he can find Randall.

Simmons plays Malak in this movie, called "Wanted: Dead or Alive." Argh.

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