Go Solo

Several years ago, while at a party, a friend of mine remarked that musicians tend to fare better once they go solo after having been in a band. I think his statement was something like, "I should just go solo; everybody does better once they go solo." This prompted us to start listing examples and counter examples. It dominated the conversation at that party and well beyond.

Recently, while attempting to bring some order to the files on an old hard drive, I found the list we made and was again amused. Since I now have a blog, I can post it here! And hopefully the comments feature will allow the list to grow.

I've added my current commentary in brackets.

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First, the rules we gradually established were:

- The band cannot have contained the solo artist's name (e.g. Paul Simon / Simon & Garfunkel doesn't count)

- The band must have temporally preceded the solo career (e.g. George Harrison / Traveling Wilburys doesn't count)

- Solo career means solo MUSIC career (e.g. Keanu Reeves / Dogstar doesn't count)

- Solo career also means SOLO career (e.g. Cracker / Camper Van Beethoven doesn't count)

- Success/popularity is measured by record sales (I've been using the RIAA database to figure gold/platinum sales -- thanks, Eric [Roston, I assume? Also, this database seems a lot crappier for doing this kind of research now.])

Where there has been controversy, I've relayed the RIAA stats as the ratio of the number of solo records that went either gold or platinum to the number of band records that did.

[Additionally, I've now italicized examples on this list I find highly suspect, but that, due to the aforementioned crappification of the RIAA database, I am too lazy to do the math for.]

Ryan Adams (Whiskey Town)
Beyonce (Destiny's Child)
Bjork (The Sugarcubes)
Bobby Brown (New Edition)
Busta Rhymes (Leaders of the New School)
David Cassidy (The Partridge Family)
Nick Cave (The Birthday Party)
Eric Clapton (Cream)
George Clinton (Parliament Funkadelic)
Phil Collins (Genesis)
Dr. Dre (NWA)
Danny Elfman (Oingo Boingo)
Eminem (D-12)
Brian Eno (Roxy Music)
Roky Erickson (The 13th Floor Elevators)
Peter Frampton (Humble Pie)
Peter Gabriel (Genesis)
Juliana Hatfield (Blake Babies)
Lauryn Hill (The Fugees)
Billy Idol (Generation X)
Michael Jackson (The Jackson Five)
Joan Jett (The Runaways)
Janis Joplin (Big Brother)
Paula Kelly (The Drop Nineteens)
Ben Kweller (Radish)
Kool Moe Dee (Treacherous Three)
Ted Leo (Chisel)
Aimee Mann (Til Tuesday)
Ricky Martin (Menudo) [This one's weird -- isn't Menudo still a "band"?]
Natalie Merchant (10,000 Maniacs)
George Michael (Wham!)
Van Morrison (Them)
Ozzy Osborne (Black Sabbath) -- 47:27
Iggy Pop (The Stooges)
Lou Reed (The Velvet Underground) -- 2:0
Lionel Ritchie (The Commodores)
Diana Ross (The Supremes) -- 19:5
Elliot Smith (Heatmiser)
Will Smith (DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince)
Rod Stewart (The Faces)
Sting (Police) -- 32:25
Justin Timberlake (N'Sync)
Tupac (Digital Underground)
Steve Winwood (Traffic)
Neil Young (Buffalo Springfield)

And the even more controversial:
Morrissey (The Smiths) -- 3:3
Peter Murphy (Bauhaus) -- 0:0
Stevie Nicks (Fleetwood Mac) -- I'm leaving this up here for history's sake, but 17:46.
Frank Zappa (The Mothers of Invention) -- 1:1

My favorite music of 2008

My friend Mike inspired me to do this. Here are some of my favorite records that came out in 2008, in alphabetical order:

Agathe Max "This Silver String"
Bohren & der Club of Gore "Dolores"
The Breeders "Mountain Battles"
Brightblack Morning Light "Motion To Rejoin"
The Bug "London Zoo"
Dan Friel "Ghost Town"
Goslings "Occasion"
Growing "All The Way"
Health "Disco"
Ho-Ag "Doctor Cowboy"
Hot Chip "Made In The Dark"
Icy Demons "Miami Ice"
Meho Plaza "Meho Plaza"
Mount Eerie "Black Wooden Ceiling Opening"
Parts & Labor "Receivers"
Santogold "Santogold"
Thunderhole "Animals, Monsters, & Fat People"

Great records I discovered this year but didn't come out this year include:

Amy Winehouse "Back To Black"
Animal Hospital "Memory"
Aphex Twin "Selected Ambient Works Volume II"
Apples In Stereo "New Magnetic Wonder"
Brian Eno "Here Come the Warm Jets"
Can "Delay 1968" and "Ege Bamyasi"
A Certain Ratio "Sextet"
David Bowie "Low" and "Heroes" and "Lodger"
Delta 5 "Singles and Session 1979-1981"
Dri "Smoke Rings"
Evangelicals "The Evening Descends"
Health "Health"
Justice [the title is a cross and I'm not sure how to do that]
T. Rex "Stars and Cars"
The Meters "The Meters"
The Microphones "The Glow Pt. 2"
Red Bennies "Announcing"
Six Finger Satellite "Severe Exposure"
The Slits "Cut"
A Sunny Day in Glasgow "Scribble Mural Comic Journal"
Television "Marquee Moon"
Unwound "Leaves Turn Inside You"

The Nuclear Option

Given our impending climatological doom, many scientists, bureaucrats, pundits, and my father have been suggesting a nuclear energy renaissance in the United States. There are three main reasons I believe this option should stay permanently off the table:

1. It's too expensive. The Rocky Mountain Institute makes the financial non-viability of nuclear plainly clear. How non-viable are we talking here? Try twice the cost of wind.
2. The waste is geopolitically and environmentally toxic. I think we're all familiar the arguments and facts on this one. Why this alone doesn't rule nuclear out completely is testament to humanity's painfully myopic decision-making tree.
   
3. It's not renewable. If "energy independence" is as big a goal as everyone claims these days, we should be avoiding tying our fortunes to yet another non-renewable fuel source proven to destabilize the regions where it's found.
   

Why are we still even considering this?

People of Earth: To Thine Own Email Address Be True

I have a fairly common last name. It's not Smith or Jones or anything, but it's been around the English-Speakers Surname Block a few times. And I have a very common first initial (i.e. not 'Q'). Those two things -- very common first initial followed by fairly common last name -- comprise my email address with a popular webmail provider.

I guess I was an early adopter and scored an amazing username with them, because increasingly over the years I have received more and more email directed to people with the same last name as me, but a different first name beginning with the same letter. That's fine; I usually just say, "Hey, it seems like you're looking for a different [first initial] [last name], this is [first name]." And they apologize and move on.

Increasingly often, though, it isn't emails directed at people who aren't me, but account updates of some kind originating from people who have erroneously entered my email address as their own when purchasing plane tickets or ordering a book or, say, accruing points with a popular hotel chain. Thus begins our current tale.

I received my first email from the HHonors program at Hilton Hotels on November 7, 2008. Needless to say, it was not intended for me, but it was "My Way Account Summary and Deals" update. The email's almost-illegibly-tiny footer warned me, "Please do not reply to this email. Mail sent to this address cannot be answered."

So, adding insult to injury, I had to track down a contact email for these people. I politely informed them of the situation and "David" responded to me one day later. Clearly he had not read my email, however, because this was his response:

Thank you for your message to Hilton Reservations and Customer Care. It is my pleasure to assist you today with your request.

For security purposes, please respond with the United frequent flyer account number and birth date that we have on file for you.

Once we have verified your account, we will be glad to process your request.

If you have any further questions regarding your HHonors account, please don't hesitate to let us know.

I replied:

I can't supply you with that information since it wasn't actually me who signed up for your program. Whoever [dude's name] is, he erroneously typed in my email address instead of his when signing up. I suggest calling him to get the correct address.

Someone named Ursula responded to that message with:

As you have requested, your email address has been removed from our distribution list. Please allow 3 weeks for our systems to be completely updated. We appreciate your patience and understanding.

If you have any further questions regarding your HHonors account, please don't hesitate to let us know.

I received my next HHonors missive a few days later. It was a mass mailing.

Dear people of Earth, please endeavor to remember your own email address. Thanks.

Dear Afterlife Overlords

For as long as I can remember, I have harbored this fantasy that when I die, there will be some benevolent being or beings who will answer all of my questions about the mysteries of life and the universe. I never remember caring much for other purported aspects of "Heaven", like good food or clouds or temperate weather etc. I want(ed) answers!

As my good friend Fred* pointed out, it would be like the bonus features at the end of the DVD of your life.

So, though I am now nearly certain that I will never get this wish for answers fulfilled, I would like to begin recording the questions I would ask here. Feel free to add yours in a comment.

+ What the hell was going on before the Big Bang?

+ Is ESP bullshit?

+ How many native people lived in the Americas before white people and their diseases killed most of them?

+ What's the deal with the Voynich Manuscript?


*Not his real name.