The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit

I didn’t have the gumption to post on a daily basis during the 2010 Winter Olympics, but I did watch a lot of them.  As I get older I find that I enjoy the Olympics more and more, although I think I prefer the Summer games more.  So here’s some random observations on the 17-day spectacle that was the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics…

• First off, I know I’m not the only one who thought NBC’s coverage sucked hard.  I don’t even care about the tape delays so much (since I’m not around to watch during the day anyway), but there was so much else to hate.  Look, I get that television networks are businesses, and the primary goal of a business is to make money.  But really, could NBC have been any more clumsy about the unending barrage of commercials?  After awhile it felt like I was watching one long infomercial for Visa, Verizon, AT&T, Diet Coke, Lexus, and McDonald’s among others.  (It’s the Visa show, brought to you with limited Olympic interruption!)

• I totally missed the opening ceremonies, but from the online commentary I saw I don’t think I missed much.  Slam poetry, for real?

• Every time I saw the Olympic logo I kept thinking of the cover for Rush’s Test for Echo album.

• Speaking of Rush – how the hell do you have a closing ceremony that celebrates the essence of Canada and not include Rush?  Avril Lavigne?  Nickleback?  WTF???

• Say Apolo Ohno again.  I dare you, I double dare you mother*^@%&@%!

• I’m not ashamed to say I watched more curling than any other event.  I do feel kind of bad for all the crap John Shuster took for leading the U.S. team’s march of futility, but it was damn frustrating to witness.

• To watch the commercials and little human interest stories that dominated NBC’s coverage, you wouldn’t think any of the athletes had fathers.

• I’m not going to bellyache about the U.S. men’s hockey team falling short in the gold medal game – considering they weren’t even expected to medal at all – but it would’ve been sweet to win the whole thing.

• Great job by Steve Holcomb’s gold-medal bobsleigh team, but if I never have to see his ass jiggle in that skin-tight suit again it’ll be too soon.

• Dear Julia Mancuso – STFU and stop whining.  Joannie Rochette cried less than you, and that poor girl just lost her mother.

• It’s cool and all that Shaun White dominated the Halfpipe, but I can’t get into it.  It’s the equivalent of the slam dunk competition at the NBA All-Star game.

• Best line of the entire Games goes to Bob Costas just prior to the closing ceremonies, praising Canada for their “innovations in science and whatnot”.

• I seem to remember coverage of the Beijing games being spread out over a lot more networks (with a much greater variety of events), but maybe I’m imagining things.

• Ballet, classical choirs, and giant glowing hamster balls.  Holy crap, Sochi means business.

Stupid real life is really putting a crimp in my ability to review this season of The Venture Bros.  As a result, you may have noticed that last week’s episode – “Handsome Ransom” – was skipped.  I’ll get around to it at some point, but suffice it to say that I enjoyed it quite a bit.  And now on to newer business.

I don’t know about you, but Season 4 of VB is clicking in a way that Season 3 seldom did.  Maybe it’s the more character-driven storylines, but it doesn’t feel as if Jackson and Doc are trying so hard this year.  “Perchance to Dean” is a perfect example.  It’s got the feel of an early episode, but with the comedic and storytelling sophistication of more recent efforts.  It really is a neat hybrid, just like Dean’s creepy, Phantom of the Opera-esque clone brother.

Read on Daddy-O…

To no one’s surprise, last year’s round of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees included not one progressive rock act.  This despite the millions of albums sold, the countless musicians inspired, and the long-lasting impact of the genre’s best.  Hell, can anyone under 50 even name two Dave Clark Five songs?  Yeah, me neither.

But to be fair, I can understand why someone not very familiar with prog rock might be inclined to write it off as so much boring instrumental wankery and bastardized classical music pastiches.  But to paint an endlessly rich style of music with such a broad brush is not only lazy, it’s downright inaccurate.  So to show that prog ain’t all clinical sweep arpeggios and no heart, I’ve put together a mixtape to showcase the gentler side of the genre.

Read on Daddy-O…

OK, that was pretty damn cool.  Although it seems that many people are pissed at Colbert’s antics while Rush performed “Tom Sawyer” on last night’s The Colbert Report, I didn’t think it was a big deal.  I’ve (hopefully) embedded a few clips from the Comedy Central website (if you don’t see it, go here), so judge for yourselves…

First, it appeared to me that Geddy was a little nervous, which is odd.  Maybe I’m just imagining things.  Also, it was weird seeing Neil as part of the interview, given his reputation as the most reclusive when it comes to interviews and media in general.  But his dry sense of humor was evident, which was cool to see (“They all have their own names.”).  Alex was, well, Alex.  He looks a little thinner than in recent years, although the whole Friar Tuck thing is unfortunate.

The interview was hilarious, particularly the “Do you ever get tired of being awesome and kicking ass?” and “Have you ever written a song so epic that by the end of the song you are actually being influenced by yourself at the beginning of the song?” questions.  And yes, I think Neil Peart may in fact have a drum dependency.

The performance was predictably solid, at least what we saw of it.  This is where the semi-controversy kicks in, since the song was interrupted by Colbert.  Some people appreciated the shtick, others were offended.  I didn’t mind, and found it funny.  I don’t think he was being disrespectful, and really, it’s not like they were trying to play a song most of us haven’t heard a thousand times already.

What the clip doesn’t show is the start of the program, which was peppered with Rush references and graphics.  So considering it’s only a half-hour show, they dedicated quite a bit to the guys.  I just don’t get why it’s taken so long for them to get back on American TV.

Programming alert – Rush will appear on The Colbert Report (Comedy Central, for the cable-impaired) tomorrow (7/16) to perform “Tom Sawyer”.  It’s their first performance on U.S. television since 1975.  I tried to find out the details of that appearance, but Google has failed me thus far.

Update:  Turns out it was Don Kirschner’s Rock Concert.

From Idolator via the AV Club comes a pretty cool music meme – compile a list of your favorite albums, with one for each year you’ve been alive. Sounds easy enough, but some years are positively stacked with music I love.  Forcing me to choose among my musical children is just so…cruel.

For me the most bountiful years were 1975-1978, 1980, 1982-1984, 1990, 1997, 1999, 2002, 2006, and 2007.

1975 – Kiss, Alive!
1976 – Led Zeppelin, Presence
1977 – Rush, A Farewell to Kings
1978 – Ace Frehley/Kiss, Ace Frehley
1979 – Pink Floyd, The Wall
1980 – Genesis, Duke
1981 – Rush, Moving Pictures
1982 – Rush, Signals
1983 – Iron Maiden, Piece of Mind
1984 – Iron Maiden, Powerslave
1985 – Kiss, Asylum
1986 – Queensrÿche, Rage for Order
1987 – Anthrax, Among the Living
1988 – Queensrÿche, Operation: Mindcrime
1989 – King’s X, Gretchen Goes to Nebraska
1990 – Queensrÿche, Empire
1991 – Queen, Innuendo
1992 – King’s X, King’s X
1993 – Robert Plant, Fate of Nations
1994 – Queensrÿche, Promised Land
1995 – Faith No More, King for a Day… Fool for a Lifetime
1996 – King’s X, Ear Candy
1997 – Hank Jones, Favors
1998 – Pearl Jam, Yield
1999 – Ben Folds Five, The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner
2000 – Doves, Lost Souls
2001 – Spoon, Girls Can Tell
2002 – Koop, Waltz for Koop
2003 – Muse, Absolution
2004 – Mastodon, Leviathan
2005 – The Bad Plus, Suspicious Activity?
2006 – Muse, Black Holes and Revelations
2007 – Field Music, Tones of Town
2008 (so far) – School of Language, Sea from Shore

As I would’ve predicted, there’s some pretty clear trends at play here.  Most of the bands I grew up loving (Kiss, Iron Maiden, Rush, etc.) were at the peak of their powers during my youth, thus their early list dominance.  That also explains why hard rock and metal are heavily represented on this list until the mid 1990s, when they either dropped off my radar entirely or were just not releasing stuff I was all that interested in.  In fact, metal pretty much disappears for good until 2004, when the awesome Leviathan was released.

The other item of note is that I was listening to most of the albums at the front of the list when they came out.  Starting around the mid-’90s, my musical horizons began to expand and I started going back and filling in holes. Were this list to go back a few decades there’d be a ton of Beatles and jazz on it.

Somehow this news escaped my attention when it first broke, but John Rutsey (co-founder and original drummer for Rush) died at age 55 over the weekend. Preliminary word is the cause of death was a heart attack possibly related to complications from diabetes, which he had been living with for decades.

Rush fans know the background well – Rutsey helped co-found the band in Toronto during the summer of 1968, along with guitarist Alex Lifeson and bassist/singer Jeff Jones. Jones’s stay was brief, and he was replaced in short order by Geddy Lee. After more lineup shifts the trio of Lee, Lifeson, and Rutsey was cemented in May 1971. It was this trio that released the band’s self-titled debut in March 1974.

Rutsey left Rush in July 1974, with the main causes reportedly being health concerns and creative differences. He was replaced later that month by Neil Peart, and the rest as they say is history. While Peart’s impact on the group is immeasurable, I think most Rush fans have always appreciated Rutsey’s very important role in the band’s history. It certainly is interesting to ponder what might have become of the group had he stuck with them.

So thanks, John. In your honor I shall play the Rush album on my drive home, and turn it up to 11.