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Oh man, I love Klark Kent. Now there's an act that deserves to be in the Hall of Fame. Well, maybe not. But I do genuinely love that album. Maybe my favorite album ever where all the instruments are played by one person.

That's a good question, and in order for them to be in they'd have to be able to tell a story that connects fusion to rock in a direct way. Like, did fusion really impact rock in a substantive way? I'm not convinced it did, but I could be talked into it. I think it'd make more sense for Jimi Hendrix or Cream to be in a Jazz Hall of Fame than for fusion musicians to be in the Rock Hall of Fame. By and large, the jazz artists that influenced rock, and continue to influence rock, predated fusion. I don't really see post-fusion rock being different if fusion never happened. A lo

That's probably true. The Go-Gos accomplished something that had never been done (first all female band to write and perform their own music and have a #1 hit). Devo wasn't the first to do anything that I know of. Firsts are a huge deal in music and the music business (and the Hall has proven itself to be primarily a business focused entity.) That's why I feel the Go-Go's should have been in already and if it had to be one or the other, it should be the Go-Go's first, even though I'd rather listen to Devo and bands influenced by Devo than The Go-Go's or bands they influenced. Bu

I love Devo. More than the Go-Gos. Both deserve to get in. But I am curious why you think Devo deserves it more.

There is no plausible argument for why the Go-Go's should not get in, or aren't already in. That's probably true for Iron Maiden, too. The rest could be argued for and against. Pretty decent list, all in all, FF notwithstanding, ignoring of course that there are some MASSIVE oversites that are still not up for consideration. Worth noting is that Carole King has already been inducted as a writer. This nomination is for performance. I love her, but I don't think she (or anyone else) deserves to be in twice when there are so many who should be in but aren't in and have never eve

I really enjoy the Gateway album with John Abercrombie, Jack DeJohnette, and Dave Holland. Especially the opening tune. I remember the first time I heard it, maybe ten years ago, I thought "Nels definitely lifted some of Abercrombie's shit." Haha. Bill Frisell was a major player in the ECM universe for a while, but I generally prefer his post-ECM releases.

Thank you for that!

If any of you know any 17 year olds (or, more likely, their parents...who am I kidding, we're all pushing 50 here) in Georgia who are turning 18 very soon, please ask them to register to vote. You can register to vote for this election until December 7, as long as you are 17.5 years old. And you can vote on January 5 if you have turned 18 by then. Anyone in Georgia can vote in this runoff. Unlike some runoffs, you do not have to have voted in the general election to be eligible to vote. https://thecivicscenter.org/blog/2020/11/6/young-people-could-decide-the-georgia-runoff-rac

I can't help it...all I can think about right now is your son making a fist with his left hand and giving Rudy a quick punch to the nuts.

GA still has provisional and military ballots to count, which probably outnumber Biden's lead. That could tip it back to Trump, but with PA all but locked down GA won't matter. But as a Georgia citizen, I really hope the lead holds for Biden here. The farther over 270 we can get the better.

I mean, I'm not really a sports guy, but our whole city is still bruised and embarrassed from the Falcons totally collapsing during the Super Bowl a few years ago, so we need this real bad. Plus, the uncounted ballots have a very good chance of putting Senator Purdue under 50%, giving us a runoff (against Jon Ossoff). Generally runoffs are bad news for Dems, but with two runoffs in one state (Warnock vs Loeffler is the other), and the senate in the balance, there might be enough enthusiasm here to flip one or both of those seats.

C'mon GEORGIA! It could happen. The numbers are there.

I was following that, too. Terrible decision. Total cesspool of conflicting information (from anonymous randos who never reveal the source of their info, even when directly asked), ultimately all of it boiling down to doom. The 538 live scroll was reporting real info in real time, and was less anxiety inducing, though not particularly comforting. It's still live and is giving me some degree of hopefulness. It's here if anyone is interested. https://fivethirtyeight.com/live-blog/2020-election-results-coverage/ EDIT: Of course, as is to be expected, today much o

I don't really buy that. Our form of government is designed and intended to be adjusted when necessary. It's baked in by the founders for the express purpose of maintaining as fair a representation as possible. We don't have that now (we haven't in a long time, but it has gone to an extreme under Trump and McConnell), therefore adjustments are necessary. I don't like the idea of expanding the court, either. I doubt anybody does. But the only options are to do it, or to suffer tyranny by a court (y then entire federal judiciary, really) that does not resemble the values of the

Maybe nothing, but a watertight argument is worth preparing, and the talking points on this subject seem pretty obvious to me and would be easy to convey to the public in an effective way. A representative form of government, by definition, is supposed to be similar in its makeup to the viewpoints of the citizenry. There are not twice as many conservatives as liberals in this country. Therefore, the court, with its (soon to be) 6/3 conservative majority is not even close to representative of the citizenry and should be adjusted in number to make it representative.

That's an amazing story. What a great experience! It serves DLR right to have a drink spilled on him if he's gonna be an arrogant bastard. Best of luck with your chemo and recovery. I'm pulling for you, as is everyone here.

On further thought, Ratt's Round and Round and The Cars Magic were probably bigger players in my limited MTV experience than Duran Duran. Quite possibly also true for some Phil Collins songs. I remember seeing You Can't Hurry Love many, many times. I can remember more specific details about all of those videos than any Duran Duran video, which is just remember as them poncing around on a yacht.

We didn't have cable in my house, so I only got to see MTV when I'd visit my grandparents each summer, so my MTV experience might be different than others, but: Michael Jackson, obviously. The David Bowie China Girl video is a pretty massive one in my memory. Maybe Duran Duran. But Van Halen Hot for Teacher was a huge smash. Probably a bigger deal than Thriller for me, which I only saw after it had been out a while.

I grew up in the '80s, and I think Van Halen probably makes up more of my musical DNA than any other music. I haven't listened to them all that much in the last 20 years or more but it is undeniable that they are a massive presence in my life and in so many vivid memories of my past. I cant separate them from memories I have of so many childhood friends (and enemies). I know exactly where I was and what I was doing when I heard as a 12 year old that they were becoming Van Hagar. They were my first music purchase I made with my own money. They are on the MTV Mount Rushmore. They are my grad

What if a few Republican senators dying or going into comas from Covid is how RBG's seat goes unfilled? That'd sure be a twist. I can envision Mitch McConnell right now getting the every Republican in the senate to write notes saying their dying wish is to vote for Amy Coney Barrett, and then if enough of them die, McConnell arguing that those are valid votes.

I've noticed something about Biden that I wish he would work on, or that his team would have trained out of him by now. He'll start to make what is obviously going to be a direct, plain spoken and clear statement from his heart, then before getting to the meat of the statement he stops, says "Look...", then veers off into a related but much less clear statement. He does this a LOT, and if he would overcome this habit it would greatly increase the effectiveness of his message, and probably score him a lot of powerful sound bites. That's my primary criticism of Biden

Adding two still puts the liberal justices on the losing side of 6-5 (or 7-4 if Breyer drops dead in the next couple of weeks). There's no point in increasing the number unless you end up with an even balance or the winning hand.

Lack of trial judge experience is not a deal breaker. I mention that because it would count for lot if it were in addition to her 2.5 years of experience as an appellate judge. And frankly, the first half year (or more) as a judge is spent moving into and setting up your chambers, hiring law clerks, etc., so 2.5 years is a pretty flimsy amount of actual case work. I think the standards should be quite a bit higher for anyone holding the highest possible position in a profession. I'll bet the standards to be the president's limo driver are more stringent. Certainl

I'd say she's only barely qualified. She has 2.5 years total experience as a judge. While there is no requirement for a SCOTUS justice to have any experience as a judge whatsoever, or to even hold a law degree, I would hope that all Americans would prefer for our Supreme Court Justices to have served more time on the bench than that. Her experience as a judge only includes federal appellate court, and she has zero experience as trial judge. Her on the bench experience is slim enough that anyone would be perfectly justified in questioning her qualifications. I wou

I saw on Nels' Instagram page that he was playing on the new Joan Osborne album Trouble and Strife. I had never heard her music, aside from What If God Was One of Us?, so I didn't know what to expect. Anyway, Nels does some fine playing on this record, and has a few solo spots that are very satisfying to hear. My opinion is that Wilco has underutilized him in recent years, using him on the records mainly as a background/ambient sounds, with only the occasional moments where he gets to come up to the surface, so to speak, so it's nice to hear him play some traditional lead and rhy