One of my students, who is 5 years old, recently injured himself.  While he was playing he cut his finger...his middle finger.  I don't know what it is with kids, but that's always the finger that seems to get injured.  With four fingers and a thumb, you would think that the middle finger would be involved in just 20% of all finger/thumb accidents, but this isn't the case.  In all my years in early childhood education, the middle finger seems like it is 3 to 4 times more likely to be injured.  

     Well, this boy decided to show everyone his injury.  It's almost like he was injured in battle and wanted to show everyone what happened.  He would walk up to them, hand held out, and finger fully extended as he recounted the story of his accident.  The funny part is that he truly had no idea that raising your middle finger was bad.  I do think he felt good about all the attention his injury received, he just didn't know the real reason why everyone was so surprised. 

     You've probably heard people talking about rock being dead for a while now.  If you take this statement at face value, it would lead you to believe there are not any good rock bands out there, that the rock music is stale, or just plain irrelevant.  Well, rock isn't dead.  It's being suffocated, and unfortunately, you're probably one of the people to blame.

     Now, you may be asking why it's your fault.  After all, you haven't done anything.  This is precisely my point.  Like most people, you are probably a casual music fan, or you're too lazy to look around and explore.  If you're one of those people who rely on the local pop music station for new music, then you're to blame.  If you listen to one of those stations, what do you hear?  My guess is Beyonce Knowles, Chris Brown Jason Mraz, Britney Spears, etc.  I don't see any rock there.  Just more of the same mind numbing pop music.

     At this point, you're probably combing your memory trying to think of rock music that is played on your local station, and you've come up with bands like Maroon Five, Coldplay, and Daughtry.  If you consider those bands real rock music, then it's no wonder you probably don't like it much or you think it's dead.  Rock was much more popular 20 years ago.  It wasn't uncommon to turn on a pop station and hear Motley Crue, Van Halen, Aerosmith, Guns N' Roses, or Whitesnake.  Now they're relegated to rock stations exclusively.  The "rock is dead" statement seems to imply that something happened in the genre that reduced the quality, but this isn't the case.  Rock didn't leave the mainstream, the mainstream left rock.

     If you're reading this and you're still convinced that there aren't any good rock bands out there, or that rock is dead, I have a homework assignment for you.  Turn off the pop music station and check out some of these current bands: Buckcherry, Theory of a Dead Man, Against Me, Kill Hannah, or Saliva.  Or better yet, why not actually put some effort into looking for good up and coming bands.  But whatever you do, stop relying on pop stations to tell you what you should be listening to.

     I recently asked one of the children in my class to read Higglety Pigglety Pop by Maurice Sendak during morning circle.  He had finished a little more than half the book when he suddenly stopped and came over to me.  He showed me the book and was concerned about the "bad" word he saw, and he didn't want to read it.  I looked at the "bad" word and told him it was OK to say.  It was actually referring to a type of tree.  Whoever though a description of an "ash" tree could be so controversial?

     Just out of curiosity, I did a search for Michael Phelps on Yahoo and there were more than 111,000,000 search result.  This isn't surprising, since Michael Phelps has been to two Olympics and won 14 gold medals, including 8 at the 2008 games in Beijing.  What is surprising are some of the suggested searches: "Michael Phelps smoking", "Michael Phelps Pot", and "Michael Phelps Smoking Picture".  It seems like the country is getting a little carried away by the tabloid picture of Michael Phelps smoking at a party.

     I'm tired of hearing people complain about how disappointed they are in Michael Phelps.  He is arguably the greatest Olympian of all-time, and at only 23, he could easily add even more gold medals to his record total.  Since his behavior didn't harm anyone else, his private life should not have any impact on his professional accomplishments.  I think smoking marijuana is stupid, especially for an athlete, but it is his business.

     In other posts, I have criticized other athletes for using drugs, but those were performance enhancing drugs.  Someone like Alex "A-Roid" Rodriquez used  performance enhancing drugs to cheat, and benefit financially from his deception.  This is not the case with Michael Phelps, whose accomplishments are legitimate and should not be tainted by gossip.

     I was drawing with some children when a 4 year old boy came to me with a problem: His crayon wouldn't work.  That caught me by surprise, so I asked him why it wouldn't work.  He then proceeded to scribble on a sheet of white paper with his white crayon and said, "look, it's broken."  We then spent the next few minutes gathering all the white crayons so we could test them to see which ones work.  It turns out they were all "broken".

     When I was 15 years old, I remember how excited I was to get Use Your Illusion 1 and 2 on the day they were released back in 1991.  My favorite band, Guns N' Roses, had released a highly anticipated album, and I was one of the first people to buy it.  Appetite For Destruction sold more copies, but Use Your Illusion 1 and 2 were my favorite.  How could you not love songs like Coma, Dead Horse, Estranged, Live and Let Die, Knockin' On Heaven's Door,  You Could Be Mine, Don't Cry, November Rain, Garden of Eden, Civil War, and The Garden?  Each CD was strong from beginning to end.

     In 1994, the band released The Spaghetti incident, which was a collection of covers, followed by Live Era, a 2 CD live album.  Due to band members leaving, and what I think is Axl Rose's tendency to be a perfectionist, there hasn't been a complete release of new music since 1991.  There's been a song here or there, such as a cover of "Sympathy For the Devil" or "Oh My God" which was released for a movie soundtrack.  Despite these sporadic releases, all we really heard were rumors of an upcoming album and songs that were leaked on occasion.

     Well, after all the speculation and rumors, it's official.  Guns N' Roses will be releasing Chinese Democracy on November 23rd, 2008, and the first single, "Chinese Democracy" was just released a few days ago.  I had already heard live versions of "Chinese Democracy", "IRS", and "Madagascar", and I thought all three songs were terrific.  What I was looking forward to was hearing the finished product.  I imagine that Axl Rose was meticulous while putting this album together, and I had also read that there were some industrial influences in the music.  I was intrigued to say the least.

     There are 14 songs on Chinese Democracy, and I heard the first single today.  The song "Chinese Democracy" is a very good one, and I like it, but I think it will take long-time GNR fans a while to get used to the new sound.  At times, it feels over-produced, and it almost sounds like a Marilyn Manson song.  I like Marilyn Manson, so I didn't mind this much, but after hearing the live version of Chinese Democracy, without all the bells and whistles, you're kind of left wondering why there's so much going on production wise.  It's a great, driving rock song, and I think it would have benefited more from a stripped-down approach than the over-production.  With that said, I still like i, and I'm looking forward to hearing the other 13 tracks.

      I get annoyed when I make large purchases and the cashier just swipes my card and hands it back to me without even making an attempt to look at the signature.  Even if they do look at the signature, what does that really prove?  For the life of me, I can't understand why all merchants don't require a picture ID when using a credit card.  I'm surprised this has never been pushed by the credit card industry.  Think about all the credit cards that are stolen each year and how much money credit card companies lose on fraudulent purchases.  Couldn't this loss be significantly reduced by requiring picture ID?

     Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any interest in requiring consumers to present a picture ID with their credit cards.  Instead, I fear things are getting worse.  With the proliferation of self-check registers, stores where you swipe the credit cards yourself, and easy pass, it's getting a whole lot easier to profit from credit card theft.  Rather than being more careful, credit card companies are embracing payment methods that are risky to consumers and their bottom line.

     I'm making a list of the great rock and roll performers of all time.  Here is a list of legendary rockers: Madonna,
Grandmaster Flash, Blondie, Percy Sledge, The O'Jays, Brenda Lee, Paul Simon, James Taylor, Bonnie Raitt, Earth Wind and Fire, The Jackson 5, Bee Gees, Etta James, The Platters, Bobby Darin, Stevie Wonder, The Supremes, Smokey Robinson, Ricky Nelson, Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin, Simon and Garfunkel, and Sam Cooke.   Tell me that isn't a great list of rockers!  There's just one problem: They're not rockers!

     The list you just read is a small sampling of the "rockers" who are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  I thought it was crazy when The O'Jays were inducted last year, and when I saw that Run D.M.C. is nominated for next years class, I had enough.  These performers would all belong if it were the Music Hall of Fame, or the Rap Hall of Fame, or the Country Music Hall of Fame, but I really don't see how you can include them in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  Although, I'm pretty sure I know the answer.

     If you induct rock acts into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, who are you going to attract?  If you said rock fans, you're correct.  You will attract rock fans almost exclusively.  Now, if you throw in some rap, country, R&B, soul, and pop, then all of a sudden, there is a little something for everybody.  You succeed in broadening your appeal to a larger audience, but you fail miserably in paying respect to rock music.  Although, repecting the music is probably the least important thing on their list.  We all know the first is making as much money as possible.

     I used to be a big sports fan in general, and a huge baseball fan in particular.  I would remember staying up until 1:30am to watch the last place Boston Red Sox play the last place Anaheim Angels when I was in high school.  Even though the games may not have been the best, I was a true fan and I went out of my way to see as many Red Sox games as I could.

     Over the years, things changed for me.  I didn't see sports as being important, as I had before.  Finishing graduate school coincided with my souring on baseball.  Just around the time I graduated with a masters degree, we were experiencing a recession and Major League Baseball was experiencing labor problems.  At the same time I was struggling to find an entry level job to pay my student loans, I was reading about uneducated millionaires complaining about receiving only $10 million dollars to play a game.  I became disgusted and essentially stopped watching sports.  Every now and then I would check scores, and if a headline caught my eye I would read it, but the days of actually following sports were over.

     Let's fast forward to 2008.  I had finished some work and I decided to catch game 6 of the American League Championship Series between the Boston Red Sox and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.  I didn't know what channel it was on, so I turned to the local FOX affiliate, but the game wasn't on.  Next I changed the station to NBC, then CBS, then ABC.  Finally, I checked ESPN and saw highlights, so I knew the game was on.  Shortly after my channel surfing was finished, someone suggested I check TBS.  I thought it was a ridiculous suggestion, but lo and behold, the game was indeed on TBS. 

     I was surprised to say the least.  TBS is a popular cable station, but it is cable none the less.  Why would you put the League Championship Series on a cable station, rather than a network that is free to everyone?  My guess: Money.  If I were to look into why TBS was chosen, I assume I would find out that TBS was willing to pay the most money to televise the games.  What shocks me is that Major League Baseball was dumb enough to take it.  Sure, you can make a few more bucks with TBS, but isn't there something to be said for having your product available to as many viewers as possible?  Is this how loyalty to your team is rewarded?

     There has been a lot written about how Major League Baseball has had difficulty capturing the imagination of younger fans.  With that said, isn't it counter-productive to have young fans follow a team all season long, then shut them out at the end of the year?  This process began with the late start times for post season games, and their choice of networks has compunded the situation.  As Major League Baseball's fan base greys and attendance suffers, they should take some time to ponder the mistakes they have made.