Halls of fame for fiddlers, visual effects artists, government and more

While there are hundreds of brick-and-mortar halls of fame you can visit, there are hundreds more virtual halls of fame online.
What follows is a list of some recent virtual halls that I’ve discovered.

National Fiddler Hall of Fame

The National Fiddler Hall of Fame in Tulsa, Okla., doesn’t have a physical museum but holds an annual musical gala for inductions. This year’s concert on April 18 is headlined by Kris Kristofferson and The Strangers.
The National Fiddler Hall of Fame is not to be confused with the North American Fiddlers Hall of Fame and Museum in Redfield, N.Y. The New York State Old Tyme Fiddlers Association is headquartered at the museum.

Visual Effects Society Hall of Fame

Since 2017, the Visual Effects Society has been inducting individuals into the VES Hall of Fame. The 2019 honorees included Walt Disney, Stanley Kubrick and Stan Lee.
The distinction is bestowed upon professionals who have played a significant role in advancing the field of visual effects.

Rail-Trail Hall of Fame

In 2007, the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy created the Rail-Trail Hall of Fame to recognize exemplary rail-trails around the country. Rail-trails are multipurpose biking paths that were created on abandoned railroad lines.

Business Travel Hall of Fame

Business Travel News, a Northstar Travel Group brand, inducts industry professionals into its Business Travel Hall of Fame.
Inductees have included the founders of Hilton Hotels, Southwest Airlines and JetBlue; chief executives of American Airlines, British Airways, Emirates Airlines, Air France, Avis and Hertz; and chairmen of Hyatt and Marriott.

Government Hall of Fame

In August, the Government Executive Media Group announced the inaugural members of the Government Hall of Fame. The 20 members of the inaugural class included CIA Director Robert Gates, Secretary of State Colin Powell, President Theodore Roosevelt, Fed Chairman Paul Volker and Apollo 11 astronauts Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins.

Fluid Power Hall of Fame

The International Fluid Power Society formed the Fluid Power Hall of Fame to honor individuals who have made significant contributions to the fluid power industry. It inducted 11 industry leaders (six posthumous) with its inaugural class last year.

Wireless Hall of Fame

The Wireless History Foundation formed the Wireless Hall of Fame to recognize outstanding individuals across all segments of the wireless industry. The foundation is a nonprofit organization formed to preserve and promote the history of the wireless industry.

Physical halls of fame on the way for U.S. Olympic athletes, Illinois rockers, more

There are at least 459 halls of fame you can visit in the U.S. and Canada. And more are on the way. (Check out this Google map of the halls of fame in North America.) They include halls of fame for athletes, musicians, inventors, aviation, fishing and toys, to name a few.
The newest physical halls of fame are the Nevada Boxing Hall of Fame, University of Texas Athletics Hall of Fame and the National Comedy Hall of Fame Museum.

Nevada Boxing Hall of Fame

The Nevada Boxing Hall of Fame partnered with HeadzUp Vegas to create an interactive boxing exhibit and museum. The NVBHOF Interactive Boxing Exhibit and Museum is located inside the Boulevard Mall. It held its grand opening on June 22, 2019.

University of Texas Athletics Hall of Fame

The University of Texas Athletics Hall of Fame opened a brick-and-mortar facility in Austin, Texas, on Aug. 30, 2019.
The Frank Denius Family University of Texas Athletics Hall of Fame is a $17.1 million project housed in the 24,713-square-foot Red McCombs Red Zone in the North End Zone of Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.

National Comedy Hall of Fame

The National Comedy Hall of Fame Museum opened its new facility in Holiday, Fla., on Nov. 12, 2019. The museum features material and memorabilia documenting the U.S. comedy industry.

Here’s a look at some more that are on the way:

U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Hall of Fame

The United States Olympic & Paralympic Hall of Fame will be hosted at the United States Olympic & Paralympic Museum. The museum is scheduled to open early 2020 in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
The 60,000 square-foot museum is dedicated to U.S. Olympic and Paralympic athletes and their compelling stories. It will feature artifacts, interactive exhibits and videos.

Pittsburgh Pirates Hall of Fame

The Pittsburgh Pirates Hall of Fame was announced last year and the inaugural class will be revealed this year. There will be a permanent display in PNC Park recognizing those selected for the honor.

Memphis Sports Hall of Fame

The Memphis Sports Hall of Fame is scheduled to open an exhibit at the AutoZone Park baseball stadium in Memphis this spring. The Memphis Sports Experience & Hall of Fame is a collaboration between Memphis Tourism and the Memphis Redbirds organization.

Illinois Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

The planned Illinois Rock & Roll Museum on Route 66 this week announced its first class of inductees. They include Chicago, REO Speedwagon, Cheap Trick and others. The organization behind the hall has purchased a building in Joliet, Illinois, for a future museum. The first floor of the museum is scheduled to open later this year, the Herald-News reported.

Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame

The Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame is establishing its inaugural exhibit within the Charles M. Russell Museum in Great Falls, Montana. It is currently raising funds for the project.

Character Hall of Fame

Last July, Comic-Con created the Character Hall of Fame with Batman as the first inductee. The inductees will be on display at the physical Comic-Con Museum, which is due to open in 2021 in San Diego’s Balboa Park.
The museum is described as “a year-round pop-culture wonderland featuring rotating immersive exhibits, theaters of varying sizes and extensive educational programming.”

Photos: Exterior of United States Olympic & Paralympic Museum (top); and logo for Illinois Rock & Roll Museum Hall of Fame.

Amazon Prime Video unleashes wave after wave of post-apocalyptic movies

In November, I noted that Amazon Prime Video had become a dumping ground for low-budget post-apocalyptic-themed movies.
I listed 37 little-known, independent post-apocalyptic movies available on Amazon Prime Video.
The trend is continuing. Today I’m going to list 34 more such post-apocalyptic movies on the service.
As with the first set, most of these movies have gotten terrible user reviews. And very few have gotten professional reviews to list on Rotten Tomatoes or Metacritic. That makes it hard for fans of the genre to find good post-apocalyptic movies among the dozens on the service. No one wants to waste their time watching bad movies.

Left Behind 2: Tribulation Force (2002)
Dead Inside (2006)
Zombie Wars (2007)
One Hundred Mornings (2009)
Wasteland (2011)
Dead Weight (2012)
Rise of the Zombies (2012)
Existence (2013)
Sound of Nothing (2013)
To Survive (2013)
Infected (2014)
The Last Light (2014)
Anger of the Dead (2015)
Jack’s Apocalypse (2015)
One Last Sunset Redux (2015)
Shelter (2015)
Astraea (2016)
Las Tinieblas, aka The Darkness (2016)
Range 15 (2016)
The Stray (2016)
Almost Dead (2017)
Darkest Day (2017)
Dawning of the Dead (2017)
Thaw of the Dead (2017)
The Z Effect (2017)
We All Fall Down (2017)
AB Negative (2019)
Texas Zombie Wars: Titan Base (2019)
The End of All Things (2019)
The Last Boy (2019)
2020: Fallen Earth (2019)
E.M.P. 333 Days (2019)
The Directive (2019)
Zoo (2019)

Photo: Movie poster from “Apocalypse Road” (2016), available on Amazon Prime Video.

Netflix getting less transparent about DVD-by-mail business

Netflix ended 2019 with 2.15 million paid subscriptions to its legacy, U.S.-only DVD-by-mail service. But the company’s fourth-quarter report could be the last time it releases DVD subscriber numbers.
In a Jan. 29 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Netflix said it will start limiting disclosure on the domestic DVD business as it shifts to a single operating segment. It specifically mentioned no longer reporting contribution profit or loss for the domestic DVD business as well as the domestic streaming and international streaming businesses. (See article by Media Play News.)
It is unclear whether Netflix will continue to report the number of DVD subscribers it has. Netflix did not respond to a request for comment on the subject.
Now that Netflix is the leading subscription video-on-demand service, it has little incentive to promote the old-school DVD business which gave the company its start.
Without marketing and promotion, the number of Netflix DVD subscribers has withered in recent years.
Last year, the DVD business lost 553,000 subscribers, or 20% of its total in just 12 months.
At its current rate, the Netflix DVD business will drop below 2 million subscribers in the second quarter.
Given the decline of the DVD business, one must wonder how long Netflix will continue to operate it.
The key to that question is whether the business is profitable. As of 2019, it was.
The domestic DVD-by-mail business generated a profit of $174 million on revenue of $297 million last year. That’s small potatoes compared to the company’s global streaming service. The company’s total revenue ion 2019 was $20.16 billion.
The eventual end of the Netflix DVD business will be harder to predict now, given that the company will no longer provide contribution profit details from the segment.

Photo: Netflix DVD service (Netflix)