I'm not entirely sure how today's music scene got to where it is at. A few weeks ago, I was watching Saturday Night Live and saw the band that was named Them Crooked Vultures. "Never heard of 'em," I thought to myself.
Well, it turns out "Them Crooked Vultures" has members from four of the most influential bands in three decades: John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin, 1970s), Dave Grohl (Nirvana, Foo Fighters, 1990s), and Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age, 2000s). I thought, "Wow, how did I not hear about this at all?" I looked in to it a bit further: they've had an album out since November. How have John Paul Jones, Dave Grohl, and Josh Homme been in a band, released an album, and in three months I not hear about it? I get RSS feeds from Rolling Stone, I listen to the radio for a half-hour every day... I just don't get it.
Yesterday, I heard Ke$ha's Tik Tok four times. Four times in a half hour. Four. This is the worst song I've ever heard. How did we get here?
So, on the optimistic note that there is good music out there (you may just have to search a little bit), I give to you the Links of the Week:
On Sunday, I saw a pretty interesting piece on 60 Minutes about the Bloom fuel cell, essentially a small power plant for your home. Here is an article from Business Week that delves into the Bloom Box a bit further.
Any time you see the headline "Pickle Defeats "Nickelback in Fan Battle" you have to read it, right?
The NFL combine is here, a place where college football players go to get tested on just about everything before they enter the NFL draft. And when I say everything, I mean everything. What matters most to the NFL teams? The 40-yard dash. Here is a post from Mike Lombardi on how NFL teams perceive the 40 yard dash times.
Fans of Rube Goldberg and Pee Wee Herman rejoice.
Apparently, planning a vacation is better than going on a vacation, according to an article from Time Magazine. I beg to differ. With the snow that is on the ground, I'd have to imagine being in Hawaii right now is better than me being cold and thinking about Hawaii.
#1 reason why I won't even think about going on Chat Roulette...
Last weekend, Shutter Island came out. Of course, since its a Scorsese movie, I saw it. I liked it, critics didn't. Oh well. Here is an interview from Vanity Fair on Scorsese, and another great piece about the making of Raging Bull and how DeNiro had to convince Scorsese to do it.
GREAT piece on the state of the NBA from ESPN's Bill Simmons. If you're an NBA fan, or were an NBA fan, you'll be nodding your head throughout the article.
The New Yorker's Malcolm Gladwell offers a nice perspective on alcohol in the USA and in other countries, like Russia.
And you can have Leno and Conan. I'll take Kimmel: