Rock Hall

We caught a bit of this year's induction ceremony for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame a few weeks ago, and this past weekend Jenny and I were perusing the list of inductees and speculating about who else should be in, both now and in the future (recording artists are first eligible 25 years after release of their first recording).

For performers who were definitely influences on rock, but who could probably make it in as performers also, I have to bring up electronic pioneers Kraftwerk (for the second post in a row!), and also surf guitar legend Dick Dale. I'm actually surprised that Dale hasn't already been inducted, and the electronic sound is such a part of rock/pop these days, I'm not sure how you can leave Kraftwerk out. Miles Davis was inducted in 2006, and I would argue that his relationship to rock is relatively tenuous, so I think a case could definitely be made for these two acts. Also, New York Dolls, maybe?

Performers who are already eligible (first record released in...um, let's call it 1981 or earlier), who should be inducted soon? We thought those should definitely include The Cure, and we thought a good case could also be made for both The Cars and Duran Duran. I just thought of another one this morning - Rush. One of my favorite bands growing up, Def Leppard, will probably miss the cut - yeah, they sold a lot of albums, but how influential was their sound? I think it's telling that KISS isn't an inductee, despite being eligible for a number of years. Am I missing anyone? Check the inductee list first; who is and isn't already in can be surprising.

Eligible within the next few years, that are "locks" to get in? Madonna and Metallica come to mind immediately. As for more modern acts, that's a longer list; maybe I'll save that for another post.

Awesome Al Gore Global Warming Quote

To Texas Republican Rep. Joe Barton yesterday:

If the crib's on fire, you don't speculate that the baby is flame-retardant. You take action.

Revelations in Music and Fashion

I'm reading this book of Jenny's on the train this week about the history of the DJ, and it mentions Ben Sherman, a clothing designer that I dig, as having been the label of choice in the working class "northern soul" clubs of Northern England back in the sixties. I can see that, although they've come a long way since then, with $90 shirts and the like.

And on the train this morning, I'm listening to Kraftwerk (also a Jenny musical selection - yes, books on DJs, early elctronic music, she's much cooler than me), and I hear a familiar melody while listening to Computerlove. Turns out that it's the melody that Coldplay uses in Talk. Who knew? Not a great song though, IMO, even with the catchy melody.

Seven Wonders

This Post article marks the first I've heard of this, but there is currently Internet voting for a new Seven Wonders of the World. The 21 eligible wonders are decent, but in this modern age, aren't they missing a few obvious ones, like the Internet itself, or George W. Bush? (a two-term president that's as dumb as he is a modern wonder, in a terrible sort of way).

Seriously though, what about the canals of Venice (too crumbly?), the Vegas Strip (too capitalist?), the Panama Canal (too utilitarian?), or the Sistine Chapel (too arty?). Don't get me wrong, their list is fine, I'm just thinking a few of the choices aren't too stellar. The Statue of Liberty - they chose that to give the US an entry, right? The Alhambra - maybe I'm not cultured enough, but I've barely even heard of it. And the minarets of Timbuktu either look like they've seen better days, or weren't all that fantastic to begin with.

Apparently Terps Are Owned...

...by Miami? Yeah, it sure seems that way. That's four losses in the last five against the Hurricanes. Is the ibis a natural predator of turtles, by any chance?

I'm predicting a #5 seed on Sunday night- anything higher is a gift, anything lower is bad luck. Is this a terrible loss? No way - the way they were out-rebounded, maybe the players had been reading their own good press, and thought they could just show up. Now they should know that they're not good enough to do that (maybe nobody in college basketball is, this season).

Anyone think they've got this CBB season figured out? I thought I picked a lot of upsets last year, but managed to win some office pools. This year, more of the same seems like the prudent course.

Nine Ways that Hollywood Flouts Physics

From Slashdot:

9 laws of physics that don't apply in Hollywood.

U.S. Fiber, Crippled Networks?

I know several people in the DC/Baltimore area who are in the Verizon FiOS service area, and have been hooked up with new fiber optic transmission of both digital TV and internet service starting at 5 Mbps for $40/month (up to 30 MBps for - holy shit! - $180/month). People are excited about this, because they can now ditch their despised Comcast cable, and also upgrade thier broadband speed, all the while saving some money. Now, we ditched Comcast years ago, and went with DirecTV's decent performance and solid customer service, and are also happy with our Verizon DSL, which is reliable if unspectacular. But FiOS would clearly be an upgrade, so I went online to try to nail down a schedule on when it may be coming to Baltimore City.

Well, I didn't find that schedule, but I did find plenty else. Over a year ago, I bitched about how France, among other places, had cheaper and better TV & internet service, by far, than we do in the states. Apparently, our broadband infrastructure itself is coming up short when compared with other developed countries. This page spells it all out, and spreads the blame around between the Baby Bells (Verizon, AT&T, etc.), mergers, FCC inaction and incompetence, and state governments afraid or unwilling to hold these corporations to their contracts. No surprise there, after all it's popular these days for governments to abdicate their utility and infrastructure resposibilities to corporations; look at red light cameras, privately operated toll roads, and the deregulated power grid. Then there's always cable "competition", and...oh hell it's Friday, I don't feel like dwelling on the same old bullshit politics, let's move on.

So what about the numbers behind Teletruth.org's accusations? $6.63 per Mbps (vs. $0.34 in Korea and $0.41 in Japan)? Going by the current FiOS price structure, at the cheapest monthly rate - assuming the maximum advertised 5 Mbps download speeds - that's $8/Mbps. Moving up to the $180/month 30 Mbps, the math is still easy - $6/Mbps. Not a pretty picture, and Verizon's fiber is still a better deal than AT&T's U-verse (formerly Lightspeed, both stupid names), which as far as I can tell only offers up to 6 Mbps. AT&T also bundles their price with the TV component, so it's difficult to figure out how much each Mbps costs, but it looks to be somewhat more expensive than FiOS.

How about the claim that the U.S. is 16th in broadband according to the ITU? Let's take a look at the current numbers, shall we? According to their growth rate metric, whatever the hell that means, we're actually ranked 13th in the world. But looking at the Network Index, the ITU measurement of fixed phone lines, mobile subscribers, and internet bandwidth per capita, the U.S. drops down to 23rd.

Is FiOS still a good thing? Sure, you take what you can get, and it's probably preferable to dealing with Comcast, Adelphia, or any of the regional cable fiefdoms. But it sure would be nice if we weren't being left in the dust by Asia, and to a lesser extent, Europe. The most frustrating aspect is that it seems like an infrastructure problem that could have been avoided, given better decision-making and some FCC backbone.

No Bias Here!

ESPN's Power 16, their college basketball experts' list of the best teams in the country, is kind enough to publish the individual ballots of said experts. The Blue Devils only appear on a single ballot - can you guess whose?

Ownage

I'll couch it in several terms, at least one of which should be understood by any of my tens of readers:

If they were a house, we'd have a 30-year mortgage.
If they were the Coyote, we'd be the Road Runner.
If they were a car, we'd hold the title.
If they borrowed money, we'd be Chili Palmer.
If they were an instance boss, we'd one-shot them.
If they were Johnny Ringo, we'd be their huckleberry.
If they were beer or donuts, we'd be Homer J. Simpson.

They are the Blue Devils. We are the Maryland Terrapins. And these days, we own them.