Wild Bill Ketelhut provides the "blog" to this anti-blog
He has a radio program on WXOU out of Oakland University
Wild At Heart
Just got a look at the upcoming Grammy nominations and only a little bit of excitement. Like every awards ceremony of this type, a lot of bands get nominated because they have been around forever so their lesser works can also grab a nomination while a lot of new (or poor selling) bands get overlooked for superior work. One such nomination this year is my favorite singer of all time. Cyndi Lauper managed to get a nomination for best Blues Album and while I hope she wins, there have been a lot of really good blues albums out there that probably deserve to get in over hers. I know I few of my friends that will be shocked to hear me say that since I’m a Cyndi fanatic, but the nomination is nice. This is also why I never watch the Grammy’s but just look over the wins a day or so later.
A while back, I went to a screening of “The Tillman Story” which to my knowledge hasn’t opened in Detroit yet but is playing here in Rochester, NY so I thought I would throw in my two cents in for my friends here that read my blog. The documentary is about Pat Tillman, a football player that started his career with Arizona State University as linebacker, a defensive position which lines up behind the front line of your defense to prevent big plays. For history buffs, the position was invented by football coach Fielding Yost of the University of Michigan. He left a multimillion-dollar football contract to join the military because he felt it was the right thing to do. Watching the documentary, it brings to mind two things. First, Tillman might not be a perfect human being but when it comes to his moral compass, he showed a brave courage to do what he thought was right. He didn’t take the easier path as so many of us do, but did something for this idealized image of what America stands for at it’s best. Second, not even getting into the issues of whether the war is a valid war (I always thought we should have left Sadam alone to hold off Iranian influence in the area and concentrated more on the Korean threat, along with increased efforts to capture Bid Laden who despite organizing 9/11 was pretty much given a free pass by the war since it is hard to fight two wars and search for a mass murderer at the same time). The tragedy here is that Tillman was killed by friendly fire and they tried to cover that up which does a huge dishonor to the memory of Tillman’s courage. An American soldier is held to high standards which should also be higher for those in charge of the war and this documentary by Amir Bar-Lev shows that the bosses don’t really have that same moral fiber. Kind of reminds me of my last job. Tillman, by all accounts, is a hero and this documentary showcases those qualities which make him so. This documentary shows us how we can hate the war but still love the soldiers who put there lives on the line daily. My grade is a A.
I was talking to a good friend of mine about concert prices for the upcoming Rush show. Despite the cheap seats being around $50, it sucks to buy them online with an additional $10 service fee. I was at Applebee’s with my parents last week and they have this promotion that if you buy a $50 gift card, you get a bonus $10 card. Wouldn’t it be nice if concert tickets, esp high end tickets did the same thing. Buy your tickets on the first day and get a $10 off a $100 ticket or something like that. I don’t see how buying something online, which should make the cost cheaper because of fewer open locations, should cause such high fees. This esp irks me when you buy 3 tickets for an event and the extra charge is on every ticket. If I’m doing one transaction, why am I paying 3 service charges? That never has made sense to me. Unless it is a real emergency, I always try to buy my tickets at the venue. I rather buy tickets day of show and pay a couple bucks extra instead of $8-12 more by getting them online. The one exception is the Ark which usually only charges $1 is you order by phone which is cheaper than gas to Ann Arbor and not enough to make me feel as I’m getting ripped off.
Talking about concerts, here are some that are coming up like the Killing Joke show I would be at if I was still in the area.
Thursday (12/09) - Killing Joke w/Child Bite opening @ Crofoot
Friday (12/10) - Air Supply @ Motorcity Casino, Verve Pipe @ Magic Bag, Minus The Bear @ Clutch Cargos
Sunday (12/12) - punk rockers the Queers @ Small's, a cappella wonders Straight No Chaser @ Caesar's Windsor, Wolfman Mac’s Howl A Day Fest @ Crofoot
Well, I hope everyone has a great day. We have gotten about 5 inches of snow out here in NY and it looks like it will continue for a bit. Hope your weather isn’t too bad and have a great week.
He has a radio program on WXOU out of Oakland University
Wild At Heart
Just got a look at the upcoming Grammy nominations and only a little bit of excitement. Like every awards ceremony of this type, a lot of bands get nominated because they have been around forever so their lesser works can also grab a nomination while a lot of new (or poor selling) bands get overlooked for superior work. One such nomination this year is my favorite singer of all time. Cyndi Lauper managed to get a nomination for best Blues Album and while I hope she wins, there have been a lot of really good blues albums out there that probably deserve to get in over hers. I know I few of my friends that will be shocked to hear me say that since I’m a Cyndi fanatic, but the nomination is nice. This is also why I never watch the Grammy’s but just look over the wins a day or so later.
A while back, I went to a screening of “The Tillman Story” which to my knowledge hasn’t opened in Detroit yet but is playing here in Rochester, NY so I thought I would throw in my two cents in for my friends here that read my blog. The documentary is about Pat Tillman, a football player that started his career with Arizona State University as linebacker, a defensive position which lines up behind the front line of your defense to prevent big plays. For history buffs, the position was invented by football coach Fielding Yost of the University of Michigan. He left a multimillion-dollar football contract to join the military because he felt it was the right thing to do. Watching the documentary, it brings to mind two things. First, Tillman might not be a perfect human being but when it comes to his moral compass, he showed a brave courage to do what he thought was right. He didn’t take the easier path as so many of us do, but did something for this idealized image of what America stands for at it’s best. Second, not even getting into the issues of whether the war is a valid war (I always thought we should have left Sadam alone to hold off Iranian influence in the area and concentrated more on the Korean threat, along with increased efforts to capture Bid Laden who despite organizing 9/11 was pretty much given a free pass by the war since it is hard to fight two wars and search for a mass murderer at the same time). The tragedy here is that Tillman was killed by friendly fire and they tried to cover that up which does a huge dishonor to the memory of Tillman’s courage. An American soldier is held to high standards which should also be higher for those in charge of the war and this documentary by Amir Bar-Lev shows that the bosses don’t really have that same moral fiber. Kind of reminds me of my last job. Tillman, by all accounts, is a hero and this documentary showcases those qualities which make him so. This documentary shows us how we can hate the war but still love the soldiers who put there lives on the line daily. My grade is a A.
I was talking to a good friend of mine about concert prices for the upcoming Rush show. Despite the cheap seats being around $50, it sucks to buy them online with an additional $10 service fee. I was at Applebee’s with my parents last week and they have this promotion that if you buy a $50 gift card, you get a bonus $10 card. Wouldn’t it be nice if concert tickets, esp high end tickets did the same thing. Buy your tickets on the first day and get a $10 off a $100 ticket or something like that. I don’t see how buying something online, which should make the cost cheaper because of fewer open locations, should cause such high fees. This esp irks me when you buy 3 tickets for an event and the extra charge is on every ticket. If I’m doing one transaction, why am I paying 3 service charges? That never has made sense to me. Unless it is a real emergency, I always try to buy my tickets at the venue. I rather buy tickets day of show and pay a couple bucks extra instead of $8-12 more by getting them online. The one exception is the Ark which usually only charges $1 is you order by phone which is cheaper than gas to Ann Arbor and not enough to make me feel as I’m getting ripped off.
Talking about concerts, here are some that are coming up like the Killing Joke show I would be at if I was still in the area.
Thursday (12/09) - Killing Joke w/Child Bite opening @ Crofoot
Friday (12/10) - Air Supply @ Motorcity Casino, Verve Pipe @ Magic Bag, Minus The Bear @ Clutch Cargos
Sunday (12/12) - punk rockers the Queers @ Small's, a cappella wonders Straight No Chaser @ Caesar's Windsor, Wolfman Mac’s Howl A Day Fest @ Crofoot
Well, I hope everyone has a great day. We have gotten about 5 inches of snow out here in NY and it looks like it will continue for a bit. Hope your weather isn’t too bad and have a great week.