EPISODE 9: THE BLACK FLAG OF STEELDERELLA
EPISODE 9: THE BLACK FLAG OF STEELDERELLA
After taking a photograph of the Metal Missionary on the Heroes Square in Budapest, VINYL MINT asked her:
"What is this black flag that you always carry with so much respect?
METAL MISSIONARY: Oh, this flag?...
The METAL MISSIONARY carefully folded the flag, put it in her backpack and continued...:
"There is a story about a metal priestess...metal was her whole life, both literally and metaphorically. She was living in a small village which was rapidly developing into a town due to a construction outbreak which was caused by a sudden investors' invasion...Every day the metal priestess was working at building sites where she inspected the quantity, the quality and the fixation of huge amounts of steel arriving there. Every night she was calculating for hours the quantity and quality of the steel that was needed for the frame of the next buildings that would arise. In reality she was trapped in an endless routine and as she didn't do anything else in her life except from working with steel, the villagers mockingly called her "Steelderella". However, not only her work had to do with steel, but her entire being as well: Steelderella had an obsessive passion for Metal! Her passion was so strong that gave her the ability to transform the noises from the building site to metal rhythms and melodies in her mind. However she could not share her passion with anyone in this village because the villagers considered metal music as pure noise. This is why, she considered herself as the Last One of the Tribe of True. The only desire that she had except from receiving weekly her metal music parcels from far, really far away, was to meet somehow the Grandmaster of the Theory of True. She wasn't sure if the Grandmaster of the Theory of True really existed, but in her fantasy that being did exist and had the absolute Metal Knowledge.
One day a bunch of music nerds visited her from the nearest main city and told her:
"We are the founders of a radio station in the Mouse-City and we finally installed the antenna... we are ready to broadcast..."
Steelderella looked at them questioningly and the Archi-Nerd continued:
"We are searching for music-elitists in order to represent all the music genres in our radio station. We have heard about your metal addiction and we searched for you. We want you to join us with your own metal radio show at our station...!"
Without thinking twice Steelderella accepted that invitation as she knew that it was the only way to share her true love for metal with other metal fans. So she did: once a week she drove 2 hours in order to reach the station in the Mouse-City. Accompanied by the Hippie who knew how to use the potentiometers, she offered a 3-hour pure metal radio show. She knew that she had only 11 hardcore listeners but even one of them would be enough for her. Although she wanted to share the music that she liked with others, at the same time she felt that not all ears in this world deserve to listen to the metal gems that she had discovered and she had the arrogant belief that the music of her radio show was only for the chosen ones of this world...
One day she accepted a live phone call by a listener:
"Hey Steelderella, I am "Messaggero", I am listening to your radio show through the internet, I am calling from Denmark. The reason I am calling you is that I want to go to a metal festival in Copenhagen, but none of my friends is interested to join me. Would you like to come to Denmark so that we go to the festival together?"
Then Steelderella without thinking twice told him:
"Yes, the Hippie and I will join you"
The Hippie surprised, during the off-air time, told her:
"What the hell did you say? We don't even know that guy!"
Then Steelderella answered:
"We don't know him but he is a brother of Metal so he belongs to the Family. Secondly, I have already said on air that we will do it, so we don't have another choice, we will just do it. And never forget our radio show motto: we are spreading True Metal worldwide!!! We will travel even to the edge of the world in order to meet new people, spread the Truth and keep the flame alive, just like a Metal "Apostle" would do."
Then, Steelderella, took a piece of a black cloth, designed her radio show logo on it and additionally wrote "spreading True Metal worldwide" on it. From that moment she decided that this flag should travel to every corner of the world as a symbol of her brand new life aim to spread True Metal worldwide. And her first destination would be Denmark!!!
Steelderella was a huge fan of Danish metal bands as well. She always said that her favorite Danish bands, such as Witch Cross, are gifted with a special unique charisma to sound fresh and cool. By the way, the "Fit for Fight" album was her biggest love. The time went by and Steelderella decided to make her personal revolution: the forthcoming trip to Denmark was a triggering event that made her quit her slavery-routine and abandon the cursed village. Now she was free as a bird and her first flight would be to Copenhagen.
During the flight to Copenhagen Hippie told Steelderella about which bands and artists were going to appear at the festival. Hippie was a real lover of music, films and life in general. His open mind mentality made him listen to any kind of music and that made him the perfect live-concert buddy. Hippie was excited about the headliners. Steelderella in reality preferred the Underground scene and liked to discover hidden gems and artists that are not presented in big festivals but in any case she considered that concert, as a good chance to listen to good music, communicate with other metalheads, exchange knowledge and experience the heat of the musical moment to the limits. Occasioned by the destination, she wanted to introduce Hippie to her personal favorite Danish stuff and she gave him her Discman with a track list and her favorite Danish compilation:
1. L.A.: Gates to the Sky
2. Crystal Knight: War Attack
3. Wasted: Evil
4. Elinor: Run Away
5. Witch Cross: Face of a Clown
6. Randy: Beast in the Night
7. Maltese Falcon: Heavy n Loud
8.Alien Force: Hell and High Water
9. Evil: Evil's Message
10. Mirage: So Many Years Ago
As soon as they arrived in Copenhagen, they followed Messaggero's instructions in order to reach him. Messaggero who was a very friendly and polite person welcomed his new friends to his place which looked like a big TEU and said:
"Well guys, I am very happy that you came here. Life here is very expensive for my pocket so I warn you that the following 4 days that we will be together we are going to eat only rice, eggs and any leftovers of my roomates. I have only one bed so I am going to offer it to Steelderella. Hippie and I will sleep on the floor. Of course if Steelderella feels lonely, lying alone on the bed, it will be my pleasure to share the bed with her. I also repaired 3 broken bicycles that I found in the trash can so we can go for a city tour without using public transport. So, relax and feel like home. I am going to smell some gases and I will be back within the next two hours in order for us to go sightseeing during our free day''.
Messaggero additionally commented with excitement that he takes part in a well-paid experiment where the only thing he has to do is to smell unknown gases and write down a description of his reaction to that smell and also added that he really loved this part-time job. Steelderella then thought that Messaggero was just another weirdo who enjoyed making up crazy stories...
The time for sightseeing in Copenhagen had come. Steelderella was really surprised that she could use a bicycle inside a city without feeling danger. In her country there were not roads that could be used only by bicycle riders, so she always avoided riding her bicycle between the moving cars. The bicycle street network was so well organized and constructed in Copenhagen that Steelderella started being afraid that a bicycle riding license may be demanded.
First of all, they visited Nyhavn, the canal with the colorful buildings and the old ships. While Steelderella was admiring this beautiful area, she remembered that she had once read somewhere that Danish people are the happiest people in the world. She could not know if this theory was 100% real but the beauty of the city and the politeness of the local people made her taste a large dose of happiness for sure. As she was a huge fan of Andersen Steelderella and her friends visited also "the little Mermaid", a statue that was inspired by Andersen's famous fairy tale.
They also visited the Assistens Cemetery, where great Danish personalities such as Andersen, the philosopher Kierkegaard and the theoretical physicist Niels Bohr were buried.
At the end of the day, they visited Christiania, a place that the Hippie really enjoyed...
The time for the festival had arrived. To Steelderella's surprise the 3 friends took a ferry in order to reach the area that the festival took place. From the very first moment, at the entrance of the festival area where the 3 friends decided to take a souvenir photo, some really cool Danish metalheads joined them.
The area of the festival was really huge and well organized with camping area, nice places to eat or drink, shops with metal stuff, etc . Except from the different stages which offered metal for all tastes with great artists' performance as well, there were facilities that Steelderella saw for first time in her life. For example there was a restricted area where people were allowed to release their tension under the sounds of Metal music by damaging old cars while using sledgehammers and other damage causing tools.
Additionally, she appreciated a lot the fact that the whole area and facilities were so well designed and respectfully arranged that could be accessible by anyone.
Steelderella spent most of her time in the thrash zone, joining the pits, or socializing with local metalheads who were telling her stories about the Vikings and their Gods, were drinking a lot of beers with her and taught her how to yell "skål"...
She also found very interesting the fact that bands from other countries that were really famous in her country were not so famous in Denmark or bands from other countries that were really popular in Denmark were not so popular in her country. However, despite those different special preferences, at the end their passion for Metal would always be a connecting link between them.
Something that she also enjoyed was the fact that there was a "meet and greet" with bands that she liked and so she had the chance to fill her jeans with autographs.
At the end of the festival Steelderella was happy for having experienced unique, once-in-a-lifetime moments, the Hippie was happy for having watched live a lot of great bands and Messaggero was happy for receiving a free bottle of water because he felt dizzy and was sent to the first aid service department. Except from great memories Steelderella and the Hippie also got a terrible sunburn as a souvenir as they hadn't realized on time that the daylight lasted for many hours during the summer months in Denmark...
After Denmark Steelderella decided to tour in the USA starting from New York City in order to find the original KILLEN LP. Her traces were suddenly lost. People say that the Metal Guru "Chlepida Phatomet" decided that Steelderella was "not metal enough" and after that Steelderella fell in depression and disappeared. Others say that she was last seen in Las Vegas performing as a stripper, while some others say that the last one who saw her was a Killer Clown somewhere in California. The only thing that I know is that a guy called Johnny sold her flag on an auction, I made the best offer and here it is. So I decided to follow her steps and travel around with her flag and visit even more places in order to spread true metal worldwide like she would do. My following destination will be the USA, where I am going to follow the Path of Steelderella. However, Mexico is going to be a stop-over on my way to the USA as I firstly want to meet and pick up "La Mexicana"...
(to be continued...)