Rock Hall needs an overhaul

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has been fraught with controversy from the start.
But as each year passes and the list of prominent artists snubbed by the hall grows, it’s becoming painfully clear that the organization needs an overhaul.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation announced the 2009 inductees on Jan. 14. Of the five performer inductees, two are rock-solid choices: Jeff Beck and Metallica.

But the selection of rap group Run-D.M.C. is another pick made by the foundation for commercial reasons and to broaden the scope of the hall. It’s not just rock and roll now, it’s hip hop, funk, country, and pop music.
The other performer inductees – Bobby Womack and Little Anthony & the Imperials – are old-school picks from the 1950s and 1960s. Meanwhile, performers that were more popular or more influential continue to be overlooked.
FutureRockHall.com keeps a list of performers who get passed over for induction. Here are a few and their first year of eligibility: Boston (2001), Def Leppard (2004), Genesis (1993), Heart (2001), INXS (2005), Journey (2000), KISS (1999), Rush (1998), The Cars (2003), The Cure (2003), The Damned (2001) and Yes (1994).
I lost respect for the hall when it inducted Madonna last year. She’s a talented performer, known for dance and pop music, but definitely not rock and roll.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s nominating process has been widely criticized. The main criticism is that it’s controlled by a few people who are not even musicians, including Rolling Stone magazine founder Jann Wenner. Their personal biases have kept certain bands off the ballot, while accommodating friends and clients.
The hall needs to expand the voting process to include input from more musicians, especially those it has already voted into the hall of fame.
MTV.com wrote a good piece about the nominating process. The Wikipedia entry on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame also covers the issue.
FutureRockHall.com has lots of fiery debates about the process and who should get in.
Reviewing the hundreds of performers and bands in its database, I noticed that one of my favorites – Concrete Blonde – was not listed. They’re eligible for consideration in 2011 and I hope they get their due. I’ve e-mailed FutureRockHall and hopefully they’ll correct the omission.

Photo: The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio. Photo by Derek Jensen (Tysto).

Mike Myers deserves to sweep Razzie Awards

Hollywood churns out a lot of bad movies, so singling out the worst of the worst is no easy task.
Such is the job of the voters of the Golden Raspberry Awards, better known as the Razzies. The Razzies are a counterpoint to Hollywood’s self-congratulatory awards season. They put a spotlight on the worst movies the studios put out each year.
The nominees for Worst Picture from last year are: “Disaster Movie,” “Meet the Spartans,” “The Happening,” “The Hottie and the Nottie,” “In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale,” and “The Love Guru.”
The “winner” of the Worst Picture Razzie should be a high-profile release that consumers had an expectation of quality based on the principals involved and the promotion campaigns.
Low-budget pop-culture parodies “Disaster Movie” and “Meet the Spartans” were schlock and everyone knew it. “The Hottie and the Nottie” was a vehicle for no-talent socialite Paris Hilton. “In the Name of the King” was directed by Uwe Boll, a modern-day Ed Wood, who has never made a good movie but inexplicably continues to get work.
That leaves two legitimate contenders, “The Happening” and “The Love Guru,” which suckered in theatergoers based on the talent behind and in front of the camera.
“The Happening” was written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, who previously did the terrific films “The Sixth Sense” and “Unbreakable.” But he started to believe his own press clippings, turned into an egomaniac and has been on a career slide in recent years.
“The Love Guru” was the pet project of self-important comic actor Mike Myers. The studio couldn’t even string together enough funny bits to make a decent trailer. The movie was a train wreck, getting just 14% positive reviews on RottenTomatoes.com.
Myers is one of those people who thinks he’s funnier than he really is and that’s annoying. His schtick is old and he needs to take a break and reinvent himself.
Hopefully he’ll come back humbler from this disaster. He can start by showing up at the Razzies ceremony, to be held Feb. 21 (the day before the Oscars), and accepting his “award” or “awards” and apologizing to his fans. Halle Berry did this to great effect in 2004. Accepting the Razzie for Worst Actress for the movie “Catwoman,” she called the film a “piece of shit, god-awful movie,” which was met with laughter and applause.
Other good sports, who have accepted their awards at the ceremony, include director Paul Verhoeven for “Showgirls” in 1995 and actor Tom Green for “Freddy Got Fingered” in 2001, according to Wikipedia.
If I voted for this year’s Razzies, I’d pick “The Love Guru” for Worst Picture, Mike Myers in “The Love Guru” for Worst Actor, Paris Hilton in “The Hottie and the Nottie” for Worst Actress, Verne Troyer in “The Love Guru” for Worst Supporting Actor, and Paris Hilton in “Repo: The Genetic Opera” for Worst Supporting Actress.

Low ratings ahead for 2009 Oscar telecast

The Oscar nominations are out and I’m like Bill Murray when he used to do his Oscar picks on “Saturday Night Live.”
Murray would have a board with the nominee names on magnets. He’d quickly toss most of them off, saying, “Didn’t see it … didn’t see it … didn’t see it.”
When I was younger I used to see most of the Best Picture nominees before the awards telecast. Now I’m lucky to see one or two beforehand and usually those are available on DVD. When you have young kids at home, it’s hard to get out and see movies targeted to adults.
I mostly use awards season now to fill up my Netflix queue with quality films to watch later, when they’re out on video disc.
I’m probably not alone. Perhaps that is why the Oscar awards show ratings have been declining. Fewer people are seeing the nominated films in the theater. And they’re not interested in the telecast because they haven’t seen many of the films yet, unless they’re out on DVD.
Based on that assumption, this year's Oscar telecast should be a low-rated affair. All of the Best Picture nominees are currently in theaters and only one would classify as a mainstream hit.
I’ve seen none of the five films up for Best Picture this year. I saw “The Dark Knight” and “WALL-E,” but they didn’t get nods for the top prize.
I have little interest in seeing “Frost/Nixon” (stage adaptations usually aren’t very cinematic), “Milk” (I don’t like Sean Penn and I’m tired of bio pics) and “The Reader” (got the weakest reviews of the five – only 60% favorable reviews on RottenTomatoes.com. Another effective lobbying campaign by the Weinstein brothers).
I do want to see “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” the only hit film of the bunch. It’s based on a story by my cousin F. Scott Fitzgerald. (Way to represent, Scott!) I also like the work of director David Fincher.
The final nominee, “Slumdog Millionaire,” is a must-see. I’m a fan of director Danny Boyle.

Even if I haven't seen many of the nominated films, I'll still watch the Oscar telecast Sun. Feb. 22 on ABC. It's the Super Bowl for film buffs.

(Above photo from Oscar.com)

Millions of Americans too lazy to bother with digital TV transition

President Barack Obama and Democrats on Capitol Hill are pushing to delay the transition from analog to digital TV broadcasts from Feb. 17 to June 12 because too many Americans aren’t ready for the switch.
Consumers have had three years to get ready. How much time do they need?
President George W. Bush signed the Digital Television Transition and Public Safety Act into law on Feb. 8, 2006. It set Feb. 17, 2009, as the last day for analog TV broadcasts.
The transition stumbled recently when the Commerce Department ran out of funding for coupons to help people buy converter boxes for their old analog TVs. Fixing the funding issue is a better idea than delaying the switch by four months.
The Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration has been distributing coupons to consumers since Jan. 1, 2008. Households have been able to request two $40 coupons to buy set-top converter boxes. The boxes typically cost $50 to $60, so a consumer’s out-of-pocket expense per box is $10 to $20 after using the coupon. You can only use one coupon per box. The boxes are available at Best Buy, RadioShack, Target, Wal-Mart and elsewhere.
Most households get cable or satellite TV, so they don’t need the special converter boxes. Only homes that rely on antennas, such as “rabbit ears,” to get programming over the air on analog sets need converter boxes.
The Feb. 17 cutoff date for analog broadcasts has been widely publicized for over a year. It would be hard to miss the frequent public service spots on TV and the media coverage of the issue.
The NTIA, which supports sticking to the original deadline, says awareness of the digital TV transition is at nearly 97% now. The other 3% presumably think Ronald Reagan is still president.
Politicians should not bow to the lazy and stupid by moving the analog cutoff date. The federal tax filing deadline is well known, but you don’t see a move to delay it because of a bunch of Johnny-come-latelys.
With the digital TV transition, lawmakers are worried about upsetting voters whose screens might go blank next month. When they can’t watch “American Idol,” they’re going to be royally ticked.
Republicans in the House and Senate have raised concerns that a delay would confuse consumers, create added costs for TV stations that would have to continue broadcasting both analog and digital signals, and burden wireless companies and public safety agencies waiting for spectrum that will be freed up by the switch.
To date, only 53% of coupons distributed have been redeemed. The NTIA has mailed 46.5 million coupons. Of those, 14 million expired and were unused. More than 11.7 million coupons are still active.
On Jan. 4, the full $1.34 billion available for coupons became fully obligated. About 1.2 million households are now on a waiting list for coupons, the NTIA says.
The Nielsen Company reported Jan. 22 that more than 6.5 million U.S. households – or 5.7% of all homes – are not ready for the upcoming transition to all-digital broadcasting. Still, that’s an improvement of more than 1.3 million homes since Nielsen reported readiness status at the end of December.

Apple’s Tim Cook looking more like Steve Jobs’ successor

In a conference call with Wall Street analysts to review Apple’s holiday sales quarter on Wednesday, the first question Apple executives had to field was about the impact of CEO Steve Jobs’ medical leave.
Ben Reitzes, an analyst with Barclays Capital, asked if Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook would be the likely replacement for Jobs should the Apple co-founder not return from his six-month medical leave.
Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s chief financial officer, replied first and stuck to the company’s talking points.
“Steve is the CEO of Apple and plans to remain involved in major strategic decisions and Tim will be responsible for our day-to-day operations,” he said. Brief and a non-answer.
Then Cook chimed in. He gave a lengthy, passionate response.
His main point was that Apple has such a strong focus and corporate culture and talented employees that the company will do “extremely well” with or without Jobs going forward.
But listening to Cook speak one couldn’t help but feel that this man is the right person to carry on Jobs’ vision and legacy. Maybe he was signaling to employees that very message.
Given the nature of the audio teleconference, it was hard to tell if Cook’s remarks were scripted, but they sounded spontaneous.
As he spoke about Apple’s corporate culture, he talked about what makes Apple unique. His list of the company’s fundamental beliefs sounded like the Nicene Creed from the Christian faith. He repeated the phase “We believe” five times.
Here’s what he said:

“Ben, let me add something to that and back up just a bit.
There is an extraordinary breadth and depth and tenure among the Apple executive team. These executives lead over 35,000 employees that I would call all wicked smart. And that’s in all areas of the company from engineering to marketing to operations and sales and all the rest. And the values of our company are extremely well entrenched.
We believe that we’re on the face of the Earth to make great products and that’s not changing. We’re constantly focusing on innovating.
We believe in the simple, not the complex.
We believe that we need to own and control the primary technologies behind the products that we make and participate only in markets where we can make a significant contribution.
We believe in saying ‘no’ to thousands of projects so that we can really focus on the few that are truly important and meaningful to us.
We believe in deep collaboration and cross-pollination of our groups, which allow us to innovate in a way that others cannot. And frankly we don’t settle for anything less than excellence in every group in the company. And we have a self-honesty to admit when we’re wrong and the courage to change.
And I think regardless of who is in what job those values are so embedded in this company that Apple will do extremely well. And I would just reiterate a point Peter made in his opening comments that I strongly believe that Apple is doing the best work in its history.”

Amen.
(Photo of Tim Cook from Apple.)

Chicago Tribune now almost indistinguishable from Chicago Sun-Times

The slow decline of newspapers gave way last year to the rapid decline of newspapers.
Sad news for ink-stained wretches like myself.
Perhaps nowhere has the decline been more apparent than at my hometown Chicago Tribune. Once self-titled the “World’s Greatest Newspaper,” the paper seems to be fading fast.
Ever since real estate magnate Sam Zell’s ill-timed, debt-laden takeover deal, the Tribune has been in a downward spiral. Zell bought the parent Tribune Company in April 2007 right before the newspaper advertising market tanked and financial markets took a tumble. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in December 2008.
The Chicago Tribune’s editorial department has seen major job cuts and the company is now looking to outsource its foreign coverage.
Last September, the Tribune launched a major redesign that shrank the size of the broadsheet newspaper along with its news hole and emphasized graphics and photos.
On Monday, the Tribune debuted a tabloid version of the paper for newsstand sales. For now, the home delivery version of the paper remains a broadsheet.
The premiere edition of the tabloid Trib used the same cover photo as cross-town rival Sun-Times. The main difference between the cover design of the two was the Trib’s decision to sell the lower fifth of the front page as an ad. The big color mattress sale ad was ugly and added to the overall cheap feel for the new paper. But hey the newspaper needs the money, so I can’t blame them.
It’s likely the Tribune will eventually switch completely to a tabloid format to save money.

This generation's Woodstock: The inauguration of President Barack Obama

The excitement is building for this generation’s Woodstock – the inauguration of President Barack Obama.
A weekend of events in Washington, D.C., culminates tomorrow (Tuesday Jan. 20, 2009) with the swearing in of Obama as our nation’s 44th president. The festivities have included a concert Sunday with performances by Bruce Springsteen, Beyonce, Stevie Wonder, John Mellencamp and U2.
The inauguration and related festivities are expected to draw about 2 million visitors over the long holiday weekend. The inauguration has been a magnet for young people who believe this could be a defining moment of their generation.
Certainly the media is in a frenzy.
After Obama’s victory in the presidential race, the editor of The Rock Island Argus contacted me and a bunch of ex-staffers from the Argus and its sister newspaper in Western Illinois, the Moline Daily Dispatch. I worked for the Argus and Dispatch in the Quad-Cities from January 1987 until March 1992.
I replied with my thoughts the day after the Nov. 4, 2008, election. They seem just as fresh today. Here’s what I said:

More than anything this election was about hope. People are hoping for a change in the direction of the country, the economy and the political discourse. Whether that hope leads to actual change for the better, no one can know right now.
The hope with President Barack Obama is that he will be a unifying figure in Washington, D.C. And with Democrats controlling both houses of Congress, he won’t have to work that hard at rallying the support of Capitol Hill.
President Obama also holds the promise of healing old racial wounds and showing the world that the U.S. embraces its diversity.
As a reporter, I’ve always appreciated that Obama would answer the questions that are asked of him. Many politicians deflect, answer the question they wish they were asked and stick to their stale talking points. Obama seems like an honest, straight-forward, intelligent guy. He’s also charming and quite funny. Oh, man, sounds like I’ve got a man-crush on Obama.
But I’m not without my concerns about his presidency. I worry that he may be too naïve on foreign affairs and lacks a proper understanding of business and economics.
But I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and am rooting for him to succeed. He certainly has his work cut out for him.
We can only hope that Obama joins the proud ranks of Illinois presidents Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan.

My former editor, Roger Ruthhart, included some of my comments in a Dispatch-Argus story, which ran Nov. 7, 2008. Here’s a link to that story. Also quoted are some talented writers I had the pleasure of working with back then, including the Washington Post’s Amy Argetsinger and the Orlando Sentinel’s Jerry Fallstrom.

(Photo from Barack Obama's Flickr photo page.)