Congratulations to the Beach Boys on Their 50th Anniversary

I think my last journal entry of the year will be about the Beach Boys. I don’t recall ever writing about them even though I have followed them since the 1960s. Pete Fornatale show on WFUV this afternoon celebrated today as the 50th Anniversary of the group’s first appearance using the name Beach Boys. It took place in Long Beach, California on December 31, 1961.

If Pete had has way he would devote the entire show to recordings of the Beach Boys and Brian Wilson, but the Digital Millennium Copyright Act forbids that. There is a limitation on how many songs by an artist an internet stream may play in an hour.


In any 3-hour period, a station can webcast:
No more than 3 songs from one album;
no more than 2 played consecutively
No more than 4 songs from a set/compilation;
no more than 3 played consecutively
No more than 4 recorded songs by the same artist
(live studio appearances are okay)

Pete was able to get around this by playing covers of songs recorded by the Beach Boys. He also played a very rare recording of Bob Dylan and Brian Wilson on a song called Spirit of Rock n Roll which was on the unreleased Sweet Insanity album.

I certainly congratulate the surviving Beach Boys as they are planning a tour for this milestone anniversary. It is shame that Carl and Dennis Wilson have passed on, but their music lives on.

Paul Simon - American Masters Born at the Right Time

Today Karen and I went to the Paley Center for Media on West 52nd Street.  We went to their library and did a search on Paul Simon and found the PBS Special American Masters Born at the Right Time.  It was a 2 hour special that covered his career from the Tom and Jerry Days in the 1950s to Simon and Garfunkel of the 60s and 70s to his solo career in the 80s and 90s.  Needless to say Paul Simon had a phenomenal career which continues to the present.

When I got home I opened up the mail and found the Paul Simon t-shirt that Lee wanted for Channukah.  I should take a picture of him and post it.

Bruce's Journal and Google Analytics

I use Google Analytics to examine hits to my journal.  I was surprised to see which of my posts got the most posts.  Over the past 30 days two posts about Jeopardy were the most popular.

#1 - Jeopardy and the 2 dollar Bill
#2 - Jason Keller - Jeopardy Superstar - by the way he lost today so he goes out winning bout $213,000 with 9 victories.  He must be one of the top 15 winners in regular competition.

Over the last 8 months the Tale of the Two Dollar Bill has been my most popular post.  I talk about how I got a two dollar bill as change and a few hours later donated it to the local public library.

There is a popular Bob Dylan site called Expecting Rain that guided its readers to a few of my posts which generated hundreds of hits.  It seems that my postings about Dylan are more popular than those about the Mets.

About 85% of my hits are for 10 seconds or less, so most of my readers just skim the entry and don't read it thoroughly.  I have gotten hits from all over the world. 

In any event, thanks for stopping by if even it is only once.

Oldie of the Day - Walk Like a Man - Frankie Vallie and the Four Seasons

Cousin Brucie played it on his show tonight.

Jason Keller - Jeopardy Superstar

It's been getting exciting in "Jeopardyland" as Jason Keller of Highland Park, NJ just won his 8th game and $202,000.  He is really getting up there in the list of the all time winners.  I can not remember too many players who have won more than 5 games since the limit was lifted some years back. Jason certainly has a long way to go to reach Ken Jennings at 74 victories, but today he started out slowly and gained momentum later on and clinched victory before Final Jeopardy.  Stay tuned.

Some Decent Weather During this Winter Break

I have always enjoyed having the week off between Christmas and New Years.  It seems that every year there is either a snowstorm or bitterly cold weather or both as there was last year.  On December 26, 2010 there was a blizzard with 2 feet of snow that crippled the city.  The weather forecast for this week is for temperatures in the 40s with some rain on Tuesday night.  At least I won't be couped up in my apartment.  I plan to do some shopping at Macy's tomorrow.

The NBA Season Finally Begins

It certainly was a Merry Christmas for Knick fans as the season finally began as the Knicks beat the Boston Celtics 106-104 at Madison Square Garden.  Carmelo Anthony lead the Knicks with 37 points as they overcame an 8 point deficit after 3 quarters.  Rookie Iman Shumpert left the game with an injury and may be out of action from 2 to 4 weeks.

Each team will play 66 games with a compressed schedule which may be very difficult for veteran players.  Since the pre-season was so short, it may take a while for the level of play to come up to speed.  As I mentioned before in this journal, I will likely not go to any games this season since the prices of tickets has gone up dramatically.

We may be able to see few Knick games on TV since Time Warner Cable is in dispute with Madison Square Garden Networks.  It seems that Cablevision which owns the Garden  and the cable TV network wants more money from Time Warner to carry the games.  I guess the fan has to pay the multi-million dollar salaries of the players.  Also, over 3 years there will be major renovations to the arena which must be paid for by the TV viewers and ticket buyers.  It is a shame that two multi-billion dollar companies have to fight it out with the fans caught in the middle.  I think that the two sides will settle since there will be too much money lost on both sides if Time Warner subscribers are shut out of games.