Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: Another year, another shame.

Its another year and another group of nominations has come out and there are some great muscians on the list.  You feel good for them although there are still bands and muscians that don't make it.  Bands that have been around longer then the twenty-five year minimum.  Bands that are still together and writing music for over twenty-five years.  Muscians that are still creating their art and yet no nod.  It is a black spot on the music that I love and the people I admire that they don't get thier rightful due.

In a past post, I have talked about my favorite band Rush.  Their first album came out in 1974, Rush, almost 40 years ago and yet they don't even get a nomination.  WTF.  Some of the nominations this year:  Guns N Roses, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, The Chilli Peppers, Beastie Boys, and Donna Summer.  This is the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, isn't it?  I love Donna Summer to death, my first music I got into was Disco but never did I consider it Rock.  Actually most of the nominations I put up I like in many different ways and eventhough I don't neccessarily consider Beastie Boys a rock band.  I can appreciate thier style with Rap and Rock in a unique way and see them in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Who made it out of my little list?  Guns and Roses, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, and The Beastie Boys will be inducted.  I remember when all of these bands came out.  Its hard to think in my old body but young mind that they have been around twenty-five years but obviously they meet those requirements. 

I don't know how the committee of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame picks their nominees an article I read Forbes broke it down but it still seems that it doesn't mean much.  They pick people who write music perform it and deserve it in my eyes and then pick a singer that had some hits, ok, maybe a lot of hits.  There are so many bands and musicians out there that deserve a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and some that don't.  If I wrote an album full of songs in 1986 and it was a little bit interesting and I toured around and people loved that album it seems that I could be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  I could have ended my career in 1988 and then come out for a music special and some showcase or fund raisers and my chances are probably better.  If I influenced a couple of grunge bands in the 90s with my style of music.  I am now an inductee.  There is a band this year that did almost that and they are now in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  Or perhaps it was just that the band gained some famous people a couple of years later.  Its all very interesting and frustrating at the same time but overall depressing.

It just seems that again the people who buy the music and visit the museum and spend their money don't have a say.  We want to fight our government for not listening to the people but why should they be any different we are constantly told what should and shouldn't happen.  We accept it all the time.  Now, maybe, the music hall of fame isn't as important as the government economy but it just shows that we just take it year after year and its not changing.  People are fickle and they don't always know whats best for the group, but there still has to be a better way. 

For me, its just a small battle for one band, which will open up the door for the other deserving nominations and soon inductees.  I would like to go to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland someday.  I love music and been playing music for many years.  I enjoy many of the bands in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame just like the ones that aren't in that Hall of Fame.  I can't go there obviously because it wouldn't be fair to those that have been pushed aside.  Until the bands that really deserve to be there are in there I can't take the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame seriously.

Charlie Sheen: Man or Myth

     Charlie Sheen has been in the spotlight for most to all of his life.  His father being a famous movie star at a young age, he is no stranger to the Hollywood scene.  Lately Charlie Sheen has gone through a lot of stuff in front of our eyes, but is he just being himself or is he spiraling out of control to the end of his career?  The news story Charlie Sheen being himself would not be a very interesting but spiraling out of control, now that's money.  He has never been a stranger to being controversial.  Wasn't it only several years ago that he was named as a client in Heidi Fleiss's Prostitution Scandal.  For goodness sake, he plays a drunk and somewhat selfish rich guy on Two and a Half Men. 

    Is he crazy?  Is he a drug addict?  Is he a famous, rich, TV and Movie Star?  A drug test showed that he doesn't have any drugs in his body.  Boy, that must have really disappointed the media frenzy, but, oh wait, there is always that crazy angle.  One thing for sure, he is rich and famous.  That is the reason why he has any problems right now.  We are interested in him because he is a celebrity and we want to see them fall.  I have been watching the news clips and although he seems a little manic it does not mean that he can not handle his responsibilities.  In the real world, people live in various forms of "normal" and  they do just fine.  They raise their kids and work their jobs and pay their bills.  He is no different.  He just has a couple of more million in his bank account and people that are interested in his life.  He lives his life the way he wants to live and he doesn't make any excuses for it.  Is he supposed to be a role model?  He is an actor and he is rich.  He should have a life that many do not have.

    He seems to be more real now then he has ever been in his life.  He works hard and he plays hard.  How many of us do the same thing?  The media love to throw us the tragedy of his life or the most interesting part of his life so they can get the people to watch their shows and get the big ratings.  They are the only reason why he might have to worry about his career but really, does he?  He has been famous all his life and he will continue to work and be rich for the rest of his life.  He is not a young man and he will be quite fine.  Mel Gibson is still working and we all know his problems too. 

   I watched the tape of his kids being taken away from him, by cops, at his kid's bedtime.  Wow!  What do you think is worse for the kids?  Being stripped from their father by strangers or living in their father's house?  Well lets think about this in his life not personalize it to our lives.  This is Charlie Sheen.  Do you really think that he is all alone with his kids and just getting crazy with them in harms way.  Charlie Sheen is rich, he has a support network of people from housekeepers to nannies taking care of various areas of his household including his kids.  They are safer then most families in the world, not to mention that he probably has security systems up the wazoo that protect the rest.  This is just a soon to be ex-wife power play to keep control over Charlie Sheen because we only care about her because of him.  The one that controls the kids controls the Sheen.  This is all ridiculous.

Charlie Sheen should be applauded by the masses for being real in a society that works hard to be fake.  We have this Utopia idea that people are very normal and only a few are crazy.  We hide our true feelings so that we can be a part of society and not have anybody look at us differently.  There are many bad things in our civilized world but there are good things too.  We need to stop trying to follow some "status quo" and be ourselves.  We love, we hate, we do good, we make mistakes, we are prejudice, and we are compassionate.  It does not make us evil to have different ideas it makes us individuals.  It does not make us evil to not be perfect.  No one is perfect!  We all live in a grey area of life, things are not all black and white or bad and good.  The definitions of those previous terms change from person to person.  We are animals with a brain that is all.  We can choose what way we want our lives to be within the walls of Law or not, always excepting the consequences.  We grow up in this world through many obstacles, most of us survive and some don't.  That is Natural Selection.  We can not save everybody we can only save ourselves.  Each form of salvation has a different meaning from person to person as well.

Charlie Sheen will live through this and we will eventually forget most of it as time passes.  We probably don't really care anyway because we all do have to worry about our own lives anyway.  We just like to see some go through "hard times".  We don't like to be alone.

Chapter 2: Politics in tragedy

   This is an excerpt from my book that I'm writing called Rantings of an Ordinary Madman.  Its a philosophy of ideas of mine.  If you like it please let me know with a comment so I can see if this book will be interesting to read or not. 

     Why in this world of ours, we are always out to help someone else.  Inside of this country we constantly have tons of problems but as soon as there is some tragedy in some other country we not only run to help governmentally but anybody who has extra money that day will give it to that country while this country could use the money.  It becomes a Media sensation that everybody will become a part for good reasons or for bad reasons.  Its great to be charitable and I know some people give money for many charities and issues here and abroad, but it seems during certain tragedies it just gets out of hand and becomes somewhat hypocritical.  The economy which is sucking right now, and there are millions of people that are hanging by a thread in this country and all this money, millions of dollars, is going to places that no one seemed to care about before.  It just seems that we forget the people that actually live around us.  There are many types of poor people in this country.  There are some that get the rent help, food help, and basic welfare and there are some that make too much money for those services but barely make enough money to live.  I understand that we need to put restrictions on these types of services.  If we didn’t a lot more people would be on these services and us as a country wouldn’t be able to pay for it.  Everyone does pay for it.  I don’t make much money and I struggle with it every day and I work really hard to just get by.  I know that if I lost everything that the government would eventually assist me if I have no income but I never let myself get to that point.  I still pay taxes not as much as a richer then I pays but I still pay.  There are no charities for my situation.  Am I jealous?  Probably a little bit.  Do I feel like other people should pay for problems not at all but it’s hard when you see people that don’t work and constantly get help?  If the people of this land are paying for them why shouldn’t they pay for me?  Is that such a weird question?  I am working 90 hours a week.  It’s not ridiculously hard work but it does take a toll on you.  I make decent money but overall it’s not really enough.  I still need my wife to work to live a little bit.  Yes, my life is my own doing.  I made choices.  I am responsible for where I am in life to a point.  I understand all of this but it bothers you when you see people having excessive amounts of money just throw it away on some third world country it drives you a little bit crazy.  Our own government runs there too to help everyone else.  I don’t know why we think we have enough money to help everybody else when still can’t help everyone here.  Oh yea, I know, we have to be part of the world but doesn’t seem that this country is the first one all the time.  That gets annoying too. 

            Millions of people are going through similar circumstances that I am going through.  We are all frustrated on equal levels and just sit back and try to do their best and do better for their families.  Some of these people did everything right from the beginning and still are in the same situation that I am in.  That just shows that it’s not always what you do that causes you to struggle.  Factors of environment fly all over and hit us on the head and money just goes to others.

            When do we stop helping everybody else and look fully here amongst the people?  Even big businesses get help from the government and they had tons of money at one time.  Talk about making their own mistakes but yet the government gave them billions of dollars.  If they took that money and gave a little bit too every family that makes under $100,000.00, it would have been a great shot to the economy.  How was that money going to be spent?  My first guess would be bills, but that’s me.  My second guess would be: “Go Shopping!”  The money would have helped America instead of just a few banks that have never been here for America.  They just want to hold all the money.  They are constantly avoiding the reality of our lives to help themselves.  If we all just helped ourselves we would be so much better off in this country and the world. 

            I have always done things by myself with some help from friends and family and I am very lucky to have that.  If we as a society tried to help each other locally the rest of the world would do the same, they wouldn’t have a choice.  I think we make it too easy for everybody else.  It’s great to be helpful to the world but we should only be helpful if we can fix the problems of our own.  No other country is going to help us if we really need it.  So why should we help them.  I know there are matters of economy that I don’t know much about and some of what I’m saying may not always be perfect, but I know it would be better for all in the long run.  Can we solve all our problems?  It is not an easy task at all and my ramblings are a small matter of thought but it’s a thought that needs to be said if not said before. 

            The sad part is there is a lot of money out in the system that doesn’t get used properly.  Our governments are filled with corruption.  Money that we pay goes to all the wrong issues just to keep politicians happy.  We need a new way of doing things or find better people to manage our monies and this land.  I know how much a million dollars can help and yet with billions of dollars we don’t seem to help enough.  To many internal battles get in our way always looking out for number one, in this country.  Don’t worry world when your country needs help somehow we will be there with bells on and we find ways to help.  Great!  Let’s help some third world country and forget about the rest of us.  I know its selfish to think like this but when you lived the way I have lived, basically a decent life and still struggle, the frustration builds and you don’t really care about some person in some foreign land.

"Cause I'm a pothole"

    Have you ever heard or perhaps seen the comercial about pot holes.  I'm not sure what's it selling but it has a very southern women talking as the pot hole.  On the radio, its actually a very funny commercial because her voice and her accent makes you laugh.  I saw the TV spot but it wasn't as good because it didn't show much but a pot hole.  It was better to imagine her talking like a pot hole.  Although that commercial was enjoyable to me the real things is getting to be a problem and its not a very funny matter.

    After the recent snow storms on the East Coast pot holes are growing in numbers.  They are small pot holes, large ones, and many in between.  These pot holes are becomming a nuisance.  As I drive around the area I constantly see cars pulled over changing flats, usually after a bunch of them.  It seems with the constant problems of the economy these pot holes aren't being filled up quick enough.  Some roads have had problems way before the barage of snow storms but many are due to this weather.  We need our governments to take care of these issues as soon as possible.  The winter months are not the best time to fill up the pot holes permanently but that doesn't mean we shouldn't do anything.  The are many options to temporary repairs.  The dangers of a pot hole is a lot more then just tire damage.  People swerve to avoid them.  People stop short in thier cars to get around them.  People avoid them without even thinking.  This opens up a can of issues, mainly car accidents.  Car accidents that happen around pot holes can be prevented.  Fix the pot hole, fix the issue. 

   I tried to look and see how bad are the problems with pot holes and couldn't find to much on it.  There was a lot of reasons why they occur but not much more.  Overall its an issue that is shared by many of the world's countries.  Well at least those that have the most season change.  The winter plays havoc on the roads of this fine state and you have to be dilligent in avoiding them at all costs because one bump into it and you can have a flat tire.  We need to stop this menace by complaining to the authorities that don't react fast enough with fixing this problem.  Thousands of dollars are spent in fixing tires maintain usually by us, the people.  Tires are not cheap and besides the rubber companies enjoying this time of year we have to finish this once and for all.

I have changed three different flats on three different occassions and I can't take it anymore.  We have enough issues to deal with. Can we try to fix the issues that are possible to be fixed?