Brutal Truth- Sounds Of The Animal Kingdom. This one, specifically the artwork, reminds me of my former colleague Charles.
https://images.app.goo.gl/Dk4CYxRDnfZVbv2Z7
Charles wasn't a metal guy, but he saw me one day looking at the artwork at my computer. He liked it so much that he printed it out and hung it on the wall in his office. Charles was the proverbial gentle giant: really tall, yet spoke calmly whenever he spoke. But Charles rarely spoke. He was really nice, but mostly kept to himself. There is a phrase that goes, "Still waters run deep." In Charles' case, the still waters was a gnawing mental illness.
We arrived at work one day to find out Charles had been arrested. After he left work the previous day, he drove to a synagogue in midtown and parked his truck out front. He retrieved a shotgun from the truck and waved it around. Naturally, the police showed up and a standoff began. He brandished the weapon for hours while rambling incoherently. At other times, he got back in his truck and drove it in circles as the cops looked on. At one point, he got out of the truck and used duct tape to spell out P-I-G in large letters on the driver side door. At the standoff dragged on for hours and nighttime fell, Charles finally used some duct tape to fix the shotgun in place below his chin. He was going to kill himself. After hours of deliberating what course of action to take, the SWAT team threw a stun grenade by the truck and stormed it. They managed to disarm him before he took his own life. The exact moment the grenade went off was caught on tape and made it into the opening credits of the TV show COPS in the late 90s.
Charles managed to avoid jail time by being diverted to mental health counseling. He came back to work and looked to be on the mend. But we arrived at work on one Monday but Charles wasn't there. Upon hearing the office voice mail, we heard Charles tell the office he was going to kill himself. I don't remember when he left the message, but we scrambled to call the police so they could prevent him from taking his life. But the cops got there too late: he had taken his own life--with a shotgun. I often wonder if he took to the artwork because it captured what was going on inside him, especially the raging animal part.
https://images.app.goo.gl/Dk4CYxRDnfZVbv2Z7
Charles wasn't a metal guy, but he saw me one day looking at the artwork at my computer. He liked it so much that he printed it out and hung it on the wall in his office. Charles was the proverbial gentle giant: really tall, yet spoke calmly whenever he spoke. But Charles rarely spoke. He was really nice, but mostly kept to himself. There is a phrase that goes, "Still waters run deep." In Charles' case, the still waters was a gnawing mental illness.
We arrived at work one day to find out Charles had been arrested. After he left work the previous day, he drove to a synagogue in midtown and parked his truck out front. He retrieved a shotgun from the truck and waved it around. Naturally, the police showed up and a standoff began. He brandished the weapon for hours while rambling incoherently. At other times, he got back in his truck and drove it in circles as the cops looked on. At one point, he got out of the truck and used duct tape to spell out P-I-G in large letters on the driver side door. At the standoff dragged on for hours and nighttime fell, Charles finally used some duct tape to fix the shotgun in place below his chin. He was going to kill himself. After hours of deliberating what course of action to take, the SWAT team threw a stun grenade by the truck and stormed it. They managed to disarm him before he took his own life. The exact moment the grenade went off was caught on tape and made it into the opening credits of the TV show COPS in the late 90s.
Charles managed to avoid jail time by being diverted to mental health counseling. He came back to work and looked to be on the mend. But we arrived at work on one Monday but Charles wasn't there. Upon hearing the office voice mail, we heard Charles tell the office he was going to kill himself. I don't remember when he left the message, but we scrambled to call the police so they could prevent him from taking his life. But the cops got there too late: he had taken his own life--with a shotgun. I often wonder if he took to the artwork because it captured what was going on inside him, especially the raging animal part.
