Bruce Dickinson: An Autobiograhy

I pre-ordered this bad boy when I first heard about it. I think Dempz tipped me off? Maybe not. Anyway...

This year has been pretty hard to get through books and movies due to fatherly responsibilities, but I managed to get through this one quickly. I just worked out.

First off, it has an awful cover. The hairy-armed awkwardly foreshortened picture on the front sucks. As does the tacky diamond plate text. But that's besides the point. The contents are good. It's legit. And it makes up for the crappy cover with a great classic era Maiden shot on the back.

Secondly, this isn't a Maiden bio. It's a Bruce bio. So while Maiden feature predominantly, there's a lot of fencing and aviation in the pages. Especially the latter. Bruce also made the decision not to include any births, deaths, marriages, so you don't get any insight whatsoever into his relationships over the years.

I found it a very informative book with a unique voice (pun intended). Oh, speaking of puns, Bruce quite likes them. He drops a few cheesy puns that he probably thinks are witty. I dunno, they're alright. But anyway, these aren't the same ol' Bruce stories you've heard time and time again. This is his life in his own words and from his own perspective. It's cool. I've read "Run to the Hills" (the official Maiden bio), and this adds a lot to that story.

I don't think this holds up to the likes of Ozzy's or Slash's bios, for instance, but it's still worth reading.

Up the irons!

Williams

This popped up in Netflix. I was on it immediately. It's an hour and forty five minute documentary about the Williams racing team in F1.

The doc is high quality. It centers around Sir Frank Williams (obviously), his daughter and Williams Team Principle, Claire, and thirdly his now deceased wife, Ginny. There's a good amount of Ginny's story told in her own words. She wrote a book about the last twenty years with Frank and dictated much of it onto micro cassettes. And there's a lot of personal interviews with Claire and Frank shot just for the doc. They ask some questions that get rather personal and emotional. The movie isn't a total fluff piece. It highlights flaws and struggles of Frank Williams in particular, as well as obviously highlighting the supreme triumphs of the team throughout the years.

You've got some interviews with the likes of Nelson Piquet and Nigel Mansell, as well as a variety of the Williams' good friends.

You learn that Claire's brother is a little whiny bitch and you can tell within ten seconds why he's not TP.

Anyhow, it's a good story. You learn a lot about Williams' back story. And you learn a lot about Frank as a person. He's a hard nut!

Recommended. Gets emotional at times, btw.