First of all, a shout out to my peeps. Both ASOWBA, and GNBB (aka John and Dez, two old friends from the wars) have decided to also post in their blogs every day over the next thirty days. I'm looking forward to reading their posts and, ultimately, to hearing what they have to say about the experience of posting every day. For me, at this point, it's part of the routine. I'm programmed to come in here after breakfast and write a few hundred words, and so I do. It's time to make the doughnuts, as it were.
Rolling Stone has a list of their top ten bassists of all time up right now. It's reader-determined, and for the most part I agree with their selections. Number one (Entwistle) is a no-brainer, and none of the rest are very controversial. Except...there's no Chris Squire. That rankles me. (Listen to the bassline on "Leave It". Or anything he did in the 70s, really. "Close to The Edge." Come on! The man's amazing.) The blurb about Geddy Lee talks about his ability to play bass and keyboard at the same time, and how that alone qualifies him to be up there, but to me, that's again to confuse craft with art. Yes, Lee is a virtuoso. No question. But is the music of Rush any good? It is not. Or, it's good in the way of craft. Well made, technically impeccable, but emotionally and intellectually barren. It's like arguing that Yngwie Malmsteen is a better guitarist than Eric Clapton. Or, even Neil Young. Who would you rather hear play guitar? I'll choose Young every time.
By the way, that same Rolling Stone has excerpts from Sammy Hagar's upcoming autobiography that are well worth reading, especially if you're interested in Eddie Van Halen at all. Kind of shocking what a raging alcoholic tool he was.
Back to work today. The new recipe I tried last night (spicy grilled shrimp) turned out incredibly. If more of the recipes from that site go as well I'll post a link. April 15th looms. At this point it's likely my wife will get her money, but it's not a done deal. We'll see.
By the way, thanks to my friend Bryan for recommending I check out the show "Top Gear." From the clips I'd seen, I'd thought the show was just wonky car stuff for people who care about high end Ferraris. And it is that, sort of. But what I didn't know is that it's incredibly funny. It's British and it's witty, and it's smart, to the point where it actually has made me kind of interested in high-end sports cars--a subject I have never cared about at all. Anyway, I highly recommend it, especially for fans of British humor.
5 comments:
It is 4:36 PM here in Ottawa, Canada and Top Gear will start (daily) at 5 PM. We have watched it for a year or more and since my husband/partner is British (Devon), it is like a big bit of home humour for him.
I love these three guys -- have you seen their series of treks across Botswana or Chile or Vietnam (over a 1000 miles each) -- they buy clunkers (or motor scooters) and have terrible advertures, almost dying in one of them.
Probably out on DVD.They are hilarious.
It's like learning to tell fake jade from real jade watching this show. I could care less about cars but have learned what the difference is between under-steering & oversteering...I think.
Would Binky appreciate this?
http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2011/04/mental-health-break-1-1.html
Yes! I read that excerpt from Hagar's book as well. I mean, my God. That was just incredible. If Sammy is to be believed, Eddie Van Halen sounds beyond the bounds of earthly a-holes. I remember years ago Hagar and David Lee Roth did a double-bill tour together when both were on the outs with the Van Halen brothers, and reading how insane and what a prima donna Roth was. It sounds like Eddie and Diamond Dave deserve each other. Maybe that is why Roth-era VH worked so well.
I've seen the Botswana episode, but not the others. So far my favorite was the one where they did the contest against the guys from Top Gear: Australia. That was hilarious.
I saw that video on Sullivan's site; yes, totally excellent.
Dez, I'm thinking about some book recs. I'll put them on your site I think....
Australian people, films rule.
Haven't seen the UK vs. Aussie Top Gear show but look forward to it.
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