Note to Apple: I don't think much of you either

I came across this blurb in the February 22, 2007 issue of Rolling Stone. If you are not a subscriber, go buy this issue...lots of entertaining info in the mag.

"500 Greatest Songs Come Alive

In May, 500 bands will gather in Atlanta to play every tune on ROLLING STONE'S 2004 list of the 500 greatest songs of all time - counting down from "More Than a Feeling" to 'Like a Rolling Stone" over ten nights. The series, which runs May 3rd-12th at Smith's Olde Bar, benefits Songs for Kids Foundation, a nonprofit group that brings musicians to sick children. "Probably every artist in Georgia will be performing" says organizer Josh Rifkind, who has already booked more than 100 acts and is soliciting more at 500songsforkids.org. He hopes to get some of the original performers to play their songs such as Georgia natives R.E.M. and OutKast."

I am not the only music nut case that thinks the 500 is pretty cool. I have the 500 songs as a playlist on my iPod. I created it after being at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland and thinking that the 500 would be cool to have. I was right; it's pretty cool. The process of collecting all the music took a lot longer than I thought and cost much more than I would have guessed. Try finding Dave Clark Five music...it ain't easy. And that was just one of the tough finds. But I really had a lot of fun running them all down. I own a lot of CD's I purchased for one song.

The amount of time and $ put into the project and the rest of the 8000+ songs in my iPod has made me a certified iPod backupaholic. Apple has made my life difficult with the way they limit how you can back up their little music machines. I own all the music in my iPod. I paid for every single song; some multiple times if you count lps, replacement lps, cds, replacement cds, and songs purchased from the iTunes store. I own it not because I am afraid of the copyright police. I own it because I believe that artists should be compensated if I listen to their music. Apple and the rest of those attempting to control how I use MY music are punishing me and those like me because of those that steal music. So, what they are saying to me is that I am not trust worthy. So, what I say to them is that they are idiots. I hope these morons didn't use these same principles to raise their children.

I was seriously considering chasing down the 500 albums of all time...but I'm pretty sure that list does not include Dark Side of The Moon. They lost me there...

My Stats:
My Quit Date is: 2/21/2007 12:00:00 PM
Time Smoke-Free: 6 days, 6 hours, 17 minutes and 30 seconds
Cigarettes NOT smoked: 94
Lifetime Saved: 17 hours
Money Saved:$15.75

Stomping out the Demon

I am on my way to being an ex-smoker. I am ready this time. I need to do it for my health and happiness. If I am not healthy, I won't be happy. Cigarettes are not a health supplement last time I checked.

The info below is provided by the program I am using to help with the quit.

"You've been Quit 2 days. $5.25 and 5 hours of your life saved!"

I am having a hard time getting excited about "I" bands. I know quite a few but none really have changed the face of music for me. Incubus? Billy Idol? Indigo Girls? Isley Brothers? Ink Spots? Iron Maiden? Iggy Pop?

Probably the closest thing to a difference maker in classic rock is Iron Butterfly. In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida baby! It never was one of my favorites but it does have a place in my musical past.

A newer "I" band that I enjoy is the native American blues band, Indigenous. I saw them open for Dave Matthews once and enjoyed the set. Excellent rocking blues. The group is comprised of two brothers, Mato Nanji, guitar and vocals , Pte, bass guitar, their sister, Wanbdi , drums and vocals and their cousin, Horse, percussion. Mato Nanji's playing is reminiscent of SRV...that's high praise.

Any more I's that deserve mention?

Wond'ring Aloud

And now we come to J....This is going to be a shared category because I can't pick just one. All of the J's I mention have a place in my life.

Billy Joel...a large body of work...a lot of it very good. New York State of Mind is killer...Scenes from an Italian Restaurant, You May Be Right, James to mention some others. The first time I saw Billy he was the opening act for the Beach Boys. The crowd was rude and paid no attention. It was difficult to hear but he was excellent. I remember he made some snide comment about not being "Elton John" which became funny to me when he toured with Elton 20 or so years after making the comment. Thanks for the music Billy.

Next up, Sir Elton John. I've seen him twice. The first time in the 80's. It was a show that I did not expect to like and I was dead wrong. Excellent production in a big venue was what I came away with. It was a great show. The second time was his show in Vegas. The music was excellent despite his voice being a little ragged. The staging was way out there. At times a bit uncomfortable...He's doing Bitch is Back and the whole time there is a huge video screen behind the stage and Pamela Anderson is doing a pole dance. 15 seconds of that was too much but an entire song...not for me. There was a huge inflatable woman's breast, numerous phallic fruit concoctions...bizarro. He still gets a nod for many years of good work.

James Gang...this is a direct result of my love for the work of Joe Walsh. He's a delightful crazy and one hell of a player. I've seen him numerous times and he never fails to make me smile. That is a good thing. Funk 49 still has legs. The guy is hilarious and talented. I am an avid Joe fan.

Jethro Tull...this goes back to my freshman year of college where I swear Aqualung was playing everywhere I went. I know it played non-stop in my dorm room...which was affectionately known as the Club 402. My roomate had an 8 track player that he rigged up that sounded quite good for the time and the thing played endlessly. My first year of college was a great year in my life and that album is the theme song. It never fails to grab me and take me back. I only saw them once...at the Chicago Theater...and they were terrific. Our seats were actually where they had set up the sound boards so we were moved to the orchestra pit. Talk about good seats! I was ready to catch Ian Anderson if he lost his balance.

I can't think of any more J's. Who did I forget?

Riding with the Kings

Oops I seem to have left out a couple of very important K artists...no I'm not talking about King Crimson or Kid Rock. I am talking about Riley B. King. Blues Boy King. BB King. His influences on Blues and Rock and Roll are notable. John (I am becoming a great guitar player) Mayer mentions BB as one of his early influences. I'm thinking BB King has grandchildren older than John.

I have been fortunate to see BB a number of times including as part of the Crossroads Guitar Festival in Dallas. The best part of the BB segment is that Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy, John Mayer and Jimmy Vaughan all came out and did a jam and a half. BB refused to leave! He was having the time of his life...near 80 years old and still cooking. It was also during that jam that I got to see John Mayer's skills for the first time. Blew me away...

Thanks to BB for all the enjoyment and congratulations on your receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom in December.

Another blues guitarist that left his mark on a lot of players is Albert King. If you want to sample Albert, try his session with Stevie Ray. Nice live blues work.

Pretty Special K

I'm finally ready to reveal my "K" musical selection. These are some of the K's that passed through my mind...

Kiss - never owned a single track and proud of it! They do get some props for "Rock and Roll All Night" but that's it.

Kansas - interesting band that did some good music but no...

Lenny Kravitz - Lenny is good and I own quite a bit of his music but no...

Kraftwerk - AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! NO

Kinks - I would have to give them the nod for position 1a. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame kind of says it all. You Really Got Me, Lola, Well Respected Man, Sunny Afternoon to name a few.

But the K goes to (I've been watching too many award shows) Carole Klein better knows as Carole King. Carole is also a Rock Hall inductee and multiple Grammy winner. The list of songs that she has written or co-written is spectacular...Let's see to name but a few...

Will you Love Me Tomorrow?
The Locomotion
Up on the Roof
One Fine Day
Pleasant Valley Sunday
You've Got a Friend
(You Make Me Feel) Like a Natural Woman
The entire Tapestry album...So Far Away, Where You Lead, It's Too Late, I Feel the Earth Move and more. This record tops the 15,000,000 mark and was on the charts for at least 6 years.

She's an awesome woman. If you haven't listened to the Living Room Tour, you are missing something. Go buy it and try it on. If you are any kind of Carole King fan, I guarantee a big smile. One of the most satisfying listens I've had in a long time.

Go! Now!

Nothing but Nets

My wife M showed me an article in Sports Illustrated that was written by Rick Reilly on the malaria pandemic in Africa. Yikes! Well, we are sending nets and I want to enlist everyone to send nets. We started our own campaign at Nothingbutnets.net. We are the Insight Insurance Netters.
Go there and join our team and give what you can.

In addition our company will donate $10.00 for every policy we write starting in February and will continue to do so until we reach our goal.

Let's help these kids.

Free (as a) Bird!!!

I kind of took an extended break from my rock and roll postings. There are lots of reasons why but none of them are really good excuses so I won't even bother to offer them up. I have every intention of finishing the project so I'm here to crank it up again.

I am going to start with a backtrack on the letter L. I stick by my choice of Led Zeppelin but there are some L artists that deserve mention.

I will start with Lynyrd Skynyrd. I think this band would have continued to grow had it not been for the tragedy that struck in 1977. This link provides a pretty good synopsis of their history.

Last but definitely not least on this backtrack...John Winston Lennon. An artist in every sense of the word...a delightful crazy man...one of the cornerstones of the Beatles. He had his trials and tribulations; his affair with drugs; his injecting Yoko into the Beatles and ultimately his rejection of all things Beatles but his status in Rock and Roll will never fade. I just wish that he was not senselessly taken from us so that we could have continued to see his work evolve. Thank you John. I can't help but believe that you would have come to appreciate what the Beatles were and embrace your role in the phenomenon.

Favorite John song...many...the first one that came to mind was "Strawberry Fields Forever".

Not bad John...

We are fortunate to own prints of some of John's drawings. The one pictured below is part of a montage that we have and is one of my favorites.

Things I will do in 2007

1. Figure out how to Quit Smoking
2. Quit Smoking
3. Quit Smoking
4. Quit Smoking
5. Breathe Better
6. Smell Better
7. Get Healthier
8. Quit Smoking
9. Go to Italy twice!
10. Continue Balding
11. Enjoy Florida as much as possible
12. Love those I love better
13. Read more books
14. Sell our company for 80 bazillion dollars
15. Play some damn good golf
16. Post blog entries more often than I did in 2006
17. Stop buying wine
18. Listen to more vinyl
19. Shave off my moustache
20. Get a little more regular exercise

Redundant is not enough

Well...I am still in computer hell at work. My backup solutions were almost useless except for some heroics by Mikey my computer hero. It seems my little firewire backup drive decided to die just when it was needed for the first time. It seemed to be running a little hot. We took the little backup appliance apart to take the hard drive out, detached the firmware and hooked it up to a computer. Then magic Mikey took an air can and blew it on the overheating drive and it decided to cooperate. When I left he was dumping all of the data on another drive so that I can work with it. Now all I have to do is get another computer.

I am not buying that desktop brand again. This is the 3rd box that just sorta crapped out on me to one degree or another. It was not viruses, spyware or malware. I am too careful and prepared for that. This is flat out hardware failure. My love affair with computers is being severely tested this week.

Don't ever get a cortisone shot in your finger. It felt like it was going to blow up. Aging is the only alternative but I wish it were a bit more subtle at times. I have something called trigger finger
Oh boy! The finger feels a bit better today but who knows if the shot will do the trick.

I will get back to my music posts soon. I need to get through the holidays and the computer demons and get refocused...soon.

We have a new Christmas tree...chunky Charley...its a long story...which I will share when I get a picture of this chunker.

My computer at work croaked yesterday. It was a very bad start to my day. I hope all the backup precautions I took allow me to recover some of the things I would hate to lose. I am still not fully operational but I'll get there. Crashing computers are one of my least favorite things in the world. I guess that goes to how important they have become in my life. That's a pretty nice picture of me over there...

I saw this on my daughter K's blog and thought it would be a good excuse to change the subject. So here goes the holiday meme...

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Hot Chocolate. Egg Nog is wrong. Thick rich icky. I get a little queasy thinking about it.
   
2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Wrapped. I figure Santa has stock in a paper company somewhere.
   
3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? I like color.
   
4. Do you hang mistletoe? We don't have any but I did mention to M that we should do it prior to our party. We never did.
   
5. When do you put your decorations up? We put them up before Thanksgiving this year because of our schedule. The outdoor decorations went up quickly during a little spell of nice weather.
   
6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? Turkey. I don't eat turkey as often as I would like.
7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child? Spending Christmas Eves at my grandparents. The food was always good and my grandpa always got a drunken Santa to show up.
   
8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I'm not sure but this was almost as devastating as finding out that Superman didn't exist.
   
9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? If I get the opportunity, yes.
   
10. What kind of cookies does Santa get set out for him? Santa needs to lay off the cookies.
    
11. Snow! Love it or dread it? It's beautiful but I really hate it.I did a short but not sweet post on this subject a short while ago.
    
12. Can you ice skate? Yes. I used to love to skate. One of my high school jobs was working for the park district at one of the outdoor ice rinks. I played a lot of hockey while working that job. I had the kids trained to keep an eye out for the park district van. When it was coming I would drop my hockey gloves and stick and skate over to the non hockey rink.
    
13. Do you remember your favorite gift? The best was a new bike I got when I was about 10.
    
14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Helping the less fortunate. I'm trying to be better at this every year. I also love the chance to spend time with the kids.
    
15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Really good pumpkin pie.
16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Playing cash station
    
17. What tops your tree? A star
18. Which do you prefer Giving or Receiving? Gifts are fun to get but giving is much more rewarding
    
19. What is your favorite Christmas Carol? When I was a kid it was Angels We Have Heard On High. I liked singing it. Now its anything from A Charlie Brown Christmas by the Vince Guaraldi Trio
20. Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum? Yum! Yum.

Thanks Mick

The holidays are approaching and it seems everyone is in a shopping frenzy. I can help relieve the shopping frenzy blues. There is no greater gift at the holidays than giving to those in need. And I'm not talking in need of that new iPod or 3 wood. I'm talking about those in the community that truly need help.

This website is really useful in finding effective charities. Find someone or something that you want to help and give whatever you can. I'll also donate to the first 5 four star charities that any of you out there donate to. I don't want to know how much you gave I just want you to recognize that giving is a really good thing to do.

Talk about something that feels right...

Special thanks go out to Mick Jagger who was in one of my crazy dreams last night talking to me about the importance of giving. Why Mick Jagger? Who knows? I said it was a crazy dream.

The Second and Maybe Last Annual Christmas Open House

Even before our party Saturday, we were debating over whether to take next year off. We are taking next year off! It is a lot of work, quite expensive and now it has become frustrating.

This year we had approximately 115 people show up. That's not the frustrating part. The frustration comes from the 62 people that were no shows. No regrets, nothing. We paid at least $1500 for these mannerless people to not come.

Here's frustration part II. Last year we had tons of food left over. We use the same "caterer" and this year there were no desserts at all, 12 shrimp, 10, chicken satays and a few other odds and ends. The point is...with that many no shows we should have had an incredible amount of left overs. The chef had to take the leftovers...it kind of sucks. Either that or had the no shows actually showed we would have had some incredible struggles for the last bits of food. No way... they took it. We paid for it and at least we could have helped soothe our minor hangovers and bad feelings for our inconsiderate associates with all kinds of good food.

I do think we will scale the party down and invite our family and some close friends and have our own fun little party. Not that I don't appreciate seeing everyone, but two years of hard work and mega expense and more than a dash of frustration is enough to change the thing from fun to funk.

Too Much

I need to backtrack on my Rock N Roll alphabet a bit to take care of some obvious omissions.

I don't know how I could forget Dave Matthews in the M category. I've been to three DMB concerts and actually saw the band twice. My favorite concert was the one time I didn't see him cuz it was my first and my lovely daughters planned the outing. It was an experience. We got to see lots of puking punks and punkettes. I saw a young punkette pee right in the row behind me and then almost roll around in it. I'm sure she doesn't remember much of the show. It was the first time I was at a concert where there were as many women in the mens bathroom as there were men. Different world. Dave concerts attract more than their share of young morons that are looking for an excuse to get inebriated and act like idiots. All concerts have these morons, unfortunately there seem to be a higher concentration of them at Dave shows. The real shame is that the DMB is excellent in concert and these dopes miss that and if you are not careful they can interfere with your enjoyment quotient.

More backtracking in the coming days.

Snow Sucks

I was just outside shoveling this "beautiful" shit call snow. You can keep it. It's heavy, cold and wet and an all around pain in the ass. I'm tired of shoveling and I want my summer back.

Day Number Last

Even if I don't post anything else today, I did it. 30 days in a row. And while I was not part of the "official" competition, I really don't care. One thing I learned is how difficult it must be to have to write everyday for a living and I gained a new respect for the talent it must take to continually write effectively. Journalists rock!

I liked Jeff Jarvis spin on blogging in this article...

T'was in the darkest depths of Mordor I met a girl so fair

But Gollum, and the evil one crept up
And slipped away with her.

That is one of a few references to J.R.R. Tolkiens work found in some of Robert Plant's lyrics. One of their songs is considered an even more obvious reference than this. I know what it is but I'm gonna let you try to figure it out.

Today is indeed Led Zeppelin Day here at Just Wondering

Arguably the greatest Rock and Roll band ever. It is still one of my favorite concert memories. I saw them in Milwaukee on July 10th 1973. I went with my best friend from high school (Neal) and my best friend from college (Spider). I'm pretty sure this concert spawned the word awesome because it was. The arena was thick with sweet smoke and great rock and roll. Believe it or not here is the playlist from the show:

Milwaukee Arena, Milwaukee, Wisconsin July 10, 1973

1. Rock And Roll
2. Celebration Day
3. Bring It On Home (intro) / Black Dog
4. Over The Hills And Far Away
5. Misty Mountain Hop
6. Since I've Been Loving You
7. No Quarter
8. The Song Remains the Same
9. The Rain Song
10. Dazed And Confused (inc. San Francisco)
11. Stairway To Heaven
12. Moby Dick
13. Heartbreaker
14. Whole Lotta Love (inc. The Crunge - Boogie Chillun - I'm Going Down)
15. Communication Breakdown

Here are some photos from the 73 tour.


Man they were good and thanks to the magic of recordings they are still good. I think I'll go listen to a little Len Zemple right now.

Shapes of things before my eyes

Holy crap...I looked up from party prep central and it was 11:00 P.M. Yikes! So, here is my Tuesday, I'm tired and out of time post.

We are having our second annual Holiday Open House party this coming Saturday. We'll end up with a 100+ people before the night is through. We did such a great job last year that a lot of the no shows are turning into shows. That's the idea. If you are going to have a party have a goddam good one. Last year my friends and family drank over 70 bottles of wine, 5 cases of beer and countless mixed drinks. Needless to say there was a lot of loud talking beginning halfway through the evening on through about 4 AM.

One of the most valuable things I learned in college was how to do good parties. I was elected Social Chairman of my fraternity my junior year of college. My senior year they didn't hold an election...they said I had no choice. I was the Social Chairman and that was that. Pretty flattering getting the #1 job in a social organization by unanimous edict. One of the secrets to my success my junior year was convincing the band (Farm) that lived next door to play for us with no guarantee of making any money. I let them use our basement for practice in return and being that it was the early 70's I think some of my brothers helped the band keep their buzz going between sets. Win Win. We would buy countless half barrels for $10 a piece. Invite the entire college, 1200+ students, charge them $1 for all the beer they could drink and live music. Any money that was left went to the band. "Farm" parties were legendary and landed the fraternity on probation more than once. We survived the probation and went on planning the next one. I have some more of these old social chairman stories but I need to wrap this up and get some sleep.

My reverse alphabetic musical tribute (revalmust or etlacites for short) will be delayed one day while I think of the superlatives that I am going to heap on the band that almost named themselves the "The New Yardbirds"

Junk

Back home again in Chicago. Air travel is wonderful for all the ground you can cover in a day but actually going through the process is a pain in the ass. Getting loaded into a pressurized steel tube and hurdling through the sky is not comfortable. I'm glad we're back and I'm glad we're done with the travel part.

I need to add a couple of honorable mentions to my O and P selections. As manogirl noted, Oasis is worth a shout. Roy Orbison is also an O that has a real place in Rock history. I loved his late work with the Traveling Wilburys. It's also impossible to ignore Tom Petty (another Wilbury). The list of great music created and performed by Tom is considerable.

Now for M. It's Sir Paul McCartney. I have been fortunate to see him in concert a bunch of times and at times it was magical. His body of solo work obviously stands on its own. Band on the Run is a classic album. McCartney, his first solo, is one of my favorites. Thank you Sir Paul for all the music.

Lots of possible M's out there so I will mention some of them. Van Morrison...just plain cool Melencamp...Indiana rocker...lots of good 3 chord specials Moody Blues...some great work in the late 60's early 70's...OK who did I forget?

Come as you are

Man, am I glad I live in the wonderful United States of America. Is this country perfect? Far from it. Our problems are real and some are critical but they pale in comparison to the problems other citizens of the world are facing. The good old USA is simply one of the best places to live in our world. Now if we could just get some leadership that was able to learn from and draw on the power of the millions of good Americans.

I was inspired to write this after reading a story titled "Iran Hard Line Regime Cracks Down on Blogs". I think web logging is an exercise of freedom. It's obvious that the Iranian government doesn't have any room for that freedom stuff. My heart goes out to the millions of good Iranians that find themselves under the thumb of yet another oppressive government. I hope the Iranian people can find their way out of it. Here are samples of some Iranian blog postings.


Much like O ban selections, there are not a lot for choices for the N band. It has to be Nirvana. They made a big impact on the music scene in a relatively short period of time. Unfortunately, the tortured soul that was the driving force of Nirvana left the planet too soon. I never get tired of Smells Like Teen Spirit or the song that is in the title bar.

Some People Gotta Have It

We're down in Florida for a few days and getting a little golf and relaxation in. We had a quiet but very delicious Thanksgiving. We brined the turkey and the flavor was killer good and the turkey nice and moist. I have been sampling leftover turkey ever since. I'm having a good time with J & M...wish more of the kids were here with us.

We are on our way out to dinner soon so I wanted to get something out in cyberspace in case it gets late.

My musical letter of the day is boring today. In reality, there is no life changing "O" band for me. The O'Jays deserve mention for the songs For the Love of Money and Backstabbers. The Coors folks have overplayed the crap out of Love Train. The only other O band I can think of is the Ohio Players. Fire was a period piece but not one of the great songs of all time.

If I ever put together my dream band I think I will come up with an O name so we can occupy this space. Anybody know where I can buy a whole lot more musical talent?