- That time is here again, music fans. The most meaningless “honor” in the music industry has arrived for its annual visit and no, that’s not a reference to the Grammys or MTV’s Video Music Awards. Those are empty awards to be sure, but nothing rings quite as hollow as a nomination for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The reason such a nod is without meaning is because right around the time the likes of the Bee Gees, Madonna or Cher are inducted, the term “Rock and Roll Hall of Fame” loses all of its value. There is nothing rock and roll about those three or scores of other inductees from genres that embody the antithesis of what true rock is all about. The Bee Gees represented disco as much as anyone and disco was the single darkest era in music history, narrowly edging out the man-band era of Backstreet Sync Degrees Town Men and the entire 1980s music scene. The instant they received a plaque in the hall of fame, it ceased to be relevant or worthwhile. This year’s nominees actually have a substantial amount of rock cred and some of them even deserve to be in a place called the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but the concept has already been ruined. The new, first-time nominees are the Cure, Eric B. & Rakim, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Guns N' Roses, Heart, Rufus with Chaka Khan, the Small Faces/the Faces, the Spinners and Freddie King. The Cure, Joan Jett, GNR and the Small Faces stand out as important and influential acts in their respective eras and aren't up for debate when it comes to their HOF merits. Other worthy nominees are up for induction after failing on previous attempts, with the Red Hot Chili Peppers and War standing out, but so do kooks like Donovan and disco divas like Donna Summer. If the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame changes its name to the Music Hall of Fame (and lowers its standards), then those nominations make sense. Otherwise……not so much. Whomever voters ultimately select, the induction ceremony will take place at the Hall of Fame on April 14 in Cleveland………….
- Riot Watch! Riot Watch! Protestors in Syria are picking up steam instead of losing it and despite months or riots and clashes with police and security forces, they aren't losing their focus. It can be easy to get caught up in the general spirit of mayhem and riot simply for the sake of rioting, but give credit to Syrian dissidents for staying on point. Friday was an especially combative day as thousands of protestors renewed calls for President Bashar al-Assad's departure and received an extra jolt of support from a band of army deserters fighting for their cause and battling with Syrian forces. All across Syria, rallies were held following midday prayers on Friday. The uprisings came after Syrian officials said seven soldiers and police personnel were killed in an operation targeting what they called "terrorists" in Homs province Friday morning. A two-day offensive in the central town of Rastan also left everal soldiers wounded in the fighting.
Rastan has become a focal point for Syrian troops looking to decimate army deserters who have formed rebel units around the town. Those deserters deserve immense respect for realizing they were on the wrong side of the conflict, not blindly following their off-point leadership and asking questions about where they stood on the issue. Standing alongside anti-government forces is a balls play and a huge risk, but if the cause is just then the risk is worth it. Elsewhere in the country, an angry pro-government mob attempted to assault U.S. Ambassador Robert Ford and other American diplomats as they arrived for a meeting with a leading opposition figure in the capital, Damascus.
The mob trapped Ford and his group inside a government building and in the process showed just how out of control the entire situation has become. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton even weighed in after Ford’s scare, calling on Syrian authorities to protect foreign diplomats. It is awfully difficult to protect foreign diplomats when you’re trying futilely to protect your own backside and stay in power, so maybe Hank should cut them some slack. But don’t lose sight of the fact that the true stars of this show are and will continue to be those trying to overthrow the government…………
- Some cynics might look at Twitter’s trending topics and characterize them as nothing more than a reflection of what happens to be on TV or happening in the sports world at a given moment. For the wicked-smaht researchers at Cornell, those topics represent something more substantial. These brainiacs view Twitter as a fascinating look inside the human mind and the resulting behaviors and opinions springing from it. A team of researchers from the Ivy League school analyzed English-language tweets from 2.4 million people in 84 countries, a total of more than 500 million 140-characters-or-less messages sent over two years. Using a computer program that searched for words indicating positive mood — happy, enthusiastic, brilliant — or negative mood — sad, anxious, fear, they were able to identify some very specific patterns and trends. For example, for anyone who doesn’t stay up until 3 a.m. tweeting and posting pictures on Facebook, positive attitudes tend to peak early in the morning and again near midnight, then dip midmorning before rising again in the evening to cap the day. Not so coincidentally, the typical morning hassles of getting out of bed and off to work or school fit seem to fit nicely into this pattern. The trend of more positive tweeting on weekends further underscores that paradigm, although the morning peak of happy tweets occurred two hours later, probably because more people were napping it out on a Saturday or Sunday morning. However, going to work doesn’t entirely explain why the Twitter mood sours in the middle of the day. A similar decline also occurs on the weekend, said lead researcher Scott Golder, a Cornell graduate student. Golder pointed to the effects of sleep and humans’ 24-hour biological clock, the so-called circadian rhythms that signal when it's time to sleep and to wake, as a better explanation for the Twitter mood changes. When they applied this model to tweets in the United Arab Emirates, where Friday and Saturday are considered the weekend, the same pattern appeared. Cornell sociologist Michael Macy, also a part of the project, hailed the study as proof of an important message about the scientific potential of social media, Macy said. "It illustrates a new opportunity for doing social and behavioral science in ways that were really unimaginable even five years ago," Macy said. Either that or it’s a great way to figure out which 15-year-old, clichéd action movie is currently playing on TNT or TBS………….
- How do you respond when you achieve your dream? Athletes, musicians, actors or just average citizens all face the same quandary in this respect because they all (hopefully) have goals and dreams, some of them larger than life. When that dream comes true, does a person revise their list and find something else to chase or do they stop, kick back and get FAT off their success? Athletes are one of the most interesting case studies of this phenomenon because they tend to be extremely driven and defiant when told they can't or shouldn’t do something. Win one championship and the goal then becomes winning two or three. That clearly doesn’t hold true for PGA golfer Darren Clarke, who admitted recently that he's struggling to stay motivated after achieving his lifetime goal of winning the British Open. Clarke, a Northern Irishman who scored an improbable victory at Royal St. George's in July, had played the Open 19 times previously and never had a great look at winning it. Now that he has, Clarke conceded he has lost much of his competitive fire. "I've done what I always wanted to do, got to the top of the mountain -- what else can compare to it?" Clarke said. "What else is there to do?" Since winning the Open, Clarke has missed the cut twice, finished tied for 68th at the Bridgestone Invitational and tied for 35th at the European Masters. Musing about his sudden lack of drive to continue competing, Clarke pointed to another well-known athlete from the United Kingdom, legendary British rower Steve Redgrave, who won five Olympic golds -- the last coming in 2000 at 38. "I've no idea how Steve Redgrave did it," Clarke said. "It's not as if I'm 21 or 22. I'm 43. Whether I get another chance to win a major, it may not happen." If not winning another major, then is there another goal Clarke might want to chase? There is, but it’s not as a competitor, at least not an active part of the process. Instead, Clarke suggested that being appointed Ryder Cup captain is the biggest challenge left in his career. Until then, he is soliciting motivational advice from those closest to him and trying to keep his fire going…………
- Churches are doing funny things these days to reach out to the world or make money to continue operations. A pastor in western Washington caught flack from his town for growing marijuana plants just a few hundred feet from a local school. Compared to a group of old dudes from Framingham, Mass., pastor Peter Jackson and his flock might be tame. The geezers from the First Parish Church in Framingham have developed a distasteful habit of doffing their clothes and posing for creepy, disgusting pictures of themselves in the nude to fill out a calendar that is somehow supposed to encourage people to support God’s work. For a second straight year, this geriatric group went full-on nude (with some strategically placed musical instruments and other props) for a calendar photo shoot and is now selling the calendar to raise money for the church. Worse still, these old guys are proud of their efforts and believe their wrinkled old selves are an attractive sight for the ladies. “In the picture -- totally awesome for an old guy,” said 64-year-old Leo Giorgio, Mr. September. The church’s former pastor is not only behind the effort, he’s a part of it. Said 86-year-old Holly Hollerorth, Mr. June, of his picture in the calendar, “The older body has its own elegance.” Yes, an elegance best kept covered up for all but you and your special lady friend, H. Again, it feels relevant to ask how taking off your clothes is pointing people to the Almighty. Sticking a banjo in front of your NSFW parts and allowing the world to see the rest doesn’t exactly scream, “Come to Jesus.” Sympathy has to go out to photographer Lynne Damianos, who snapped all of the images for the calendar and could not have been paid nearly enough for seeing those retina-scarring images. “They felt special and they really wanted to do their thing for the church. I think they had a lot of fun and they really let go of their inhibitions to make this happen,” she said. Part of the blame for this farce has to go on the female members of the church, who did their own calendar in 2006 that sold out and raised $2,600. Look what you’ve inspired now, ladies. Hope you’re proud of yourselves………..
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