Shawn

Shameful in comparison to the UK original. Never seen the original (though I plan to eventually). Regardless of whether the show is a remake or not I think it's an excellent series with an impressive cast. I think the show does a marvelous job of capturing "life below the poverty line" and some of the "tricks" you have to use to survive in a country geared to operate for people with much more money than these characters have.

Shameless - Season 1

I finally caught Skyfall today and loved it, added it to my list.

Movies played a larger role in my life this year than they have for awhile, I think I saw more films in 2012 than I have in the past few years combined. I was quite pleasantly surprised how many of them were either really good or at least pass-the-time enjoyable. Independents made the most impact on me...while the big-budget Hollywood films were much more hit or miss. A couple caveats about my list. 1. I don't watch many Foreign Language films so expect to only see English Language movies. 2. I have yet to see a few of the more talked about films of the year (Argo, Lincoln) Anyway, without further ado here is my list of Excellent/Good/Disappointments from 2012 (in no particular order). Best Silver Linings Playbook The Perks Of Being A Wallflower Safety Not Guaranteed Liberal Arts Ruby Sparks Skyfall The Cabin In The Woods Looper Moonrise Kingdom Salmon Fishing In The Yemen End Of Watch Avengers Ted Haywire This Is 40 People Like Us On The Road The Dark Knight Rises Pitch Perfect Flawed but still enjoyable: The Five-Year Engagement Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World Prometheus Deadfall Butter Snow White & The Huntsman Dark Shadows Damsels In Distress The Campaign Worst: Resident Evil: Retribution The Amazing Spiderman Lockout Total Recall The Apparition Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

This is fantastic! Wilbur is my favorite jazz bassist, so happy to have another session that allows him ample room to speak his piece.

Anathema - Were You There?

That version of Stairway To Heaven with Heart was damn fine. Must be nerve-wracking to perform a song like that with the original artists watching down from on high.

Season 3 Just read that it has already been renewed for Season 4, good news because it's one of the more enjoyable genre shows on TV right now.

Happy Holidays

For a more pagan-flavored spin on the holiday...

R.I.P. I'll second that recommendation for the first Captain Beyond album, well worth picking up.

Season 2

I think Alex gets dismissed unfairly. Sure, he's not a "groundbreaking" guitarist by any stretch of the imagination, however his is an excellent ROCK guitarist. He's written tons of very catchy riffs over the years and I love his solos. If you listen to his playing on tracks like Xanadu or La Villa Strangiato I don't think his talent is in question. Plus, in the grand scheme of things the most important element of Rush is that the combination of these 3 players together created a band who has a unique sound and cannot be mistaken for any other group.

Finding a nice mix between Yule and Christmas... The album creates a very nice overall vibe and holds attention throughout, I have friends that don't really like Jethro Tull that enjoy this album regardless.

Tom Sawyer is from the album Moving Pictures, Spirit of Radio was from the prior album Permanent Waves. FYI.

Seems he spent about 5 minutes writing that article. His saying that you can't resize the iTunes window to show the rest of the desktop is just flat out inaccurate it works exactly the same as the previous version. He also laments not being able to see artwork...hey Marc, try clicking the little thumbnail of the album cover (to the right of the player controls) when you are playing a song and you'll be amazed to see a desktop sized version of the artwork pop up before your eyes.

Happy Birthday my friend.

The first iTunes update for 11 is available. This update restores the "Find Duplicates" functionality, speeds up the Search response, fixes the .jpeg to .png upconversion when manually adding artwork among other smaller tweaks.

Regardless of the opinion on Heart's musical merit, these statistics probably have something to do with it... Heart has sold over 30 million records worldwide, had 20 Top 40 singles, seven Top Ten albums and four Grammy nominations. Heart achieved Top 10 albums on the Billboard charts in the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and 2010s, with chart singles in each decade. This span of over four decades gives them the longest span of Top 10 albums by a female fronted band.

I've been a Rush fan since 1980, one of the few bands I have stuck with consistently through all the intervening years. I'm happy they are finally getting some recognition by the mainstream press.

I apologize in advance for this list not containing any Jazz releases. 1. Storm Corrosion (Steven Wilson/Mikael Akerfeldt) 2. Rush - Clockwork Angels 3. Steven Wilson - Get All You Deserve 4. Ian Anderson - Thick As A Brick 2 5. Beardfish - The Void 6. Anathema - Weather Systems 7. Witchcraft - Legend 8. Alcest - Les Voyages de L'Ame 9. The Pineapple Thief - All The Wars 10. High On Fire - De Vermis Mysteriis

How does Heart get in before Deep Purple? Deep Purple has been eligible for like 20 years, why didn't they go in over a decade ago?

Winners announced today, the following artists will be inducted... Rush Heart Randy Newman Public Enemy Donna Summer Albert King Lou Adler Quincy Jones

Isn't that one of those cheap faux-stained glass lamp shades? Like the ones in Pizza Hut back in the day.