Author: Glen Harness

Formerly a computer guy at a big medical center
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The Next Great Nashville Band

The producers of American Idol had a little free time, and decided to find out who the next great American band would be, so naturally enough they created a show called The Next Great American Band. It’s been airing on Fox on Friday nights for the last couple of months (and Friday night is a horrible night for this show; it should have been on on Monday or Tuesday).

Anyway, it’s similar to Idol, in that you have a dozen performers (in this case, bands), three judges, a host, and the American telephone-voting public.

Friday night was the penultimate episode, and the final three are bands called Sixwire, Denver and the Mile High Orchestra, and The Clark Brothers. What I find the most interesting is that the bands came from all over the country: California, New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit, Florida, and Nashville. And the three finalists are all from Nashville.

The Clark Brothers are by far the best of the three (they’ve been the band to beat from day one). Sixwire is good as well. While Denver and the Mile High Orchestra isn’t quite my cup of tea, their musicianship is top notch. The funny thing is, living here in Nashville, I’ve never heard of any of them.

My prediction for next week’s finale is that the Clark Brothers will win, followed by Sixwire, with Denver and the Mile High Orchestra coming in third. I’m not sure this show has enough of a viewership to propel one of these groups into Carrie Underwood stardom, but it should be enough to get at least the Clark Brothers (two of whom used to play with Underwood) noticed.

Honorable mention goes to Cliff Wagner and the Old #7, a bluegrassy band from California, who got booted off way too early.

I’d like to see this show come back next year. From the outset, the talent was top notch; you didn’t hear any sour notes from anyone. It always amazes me how bad some of the final four or five sing sometimes on American Idol. The producers didn’t play any silly games by highlighting bad auditions, and and the series didn’t drag on for months and months showing auditions.

My favorite show in this genre still has to be Nashville Star, since those performers are also expected to write music and to some extent play an instrument. That’s partly what made The Next Great American Band interesting to me; the bands were allowed to play original music. American Idol should take a cue from Star and Band and allow their performers to sing original songs at some point during the competition.

So, next week is the season (or series?) finale. Good luck to The Clark Brothers.

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Com(spam)cast

For a company that touts their anti-spam stuff as much as Comcast does, they sure let a lot get through. I have a Comcast email account, which I’ve never given to anyone. Yet I get spam on it every day.

A few months ago, I found an email address on Comcast’s web site that would let me report spam in order to help prevent it. You basically forward the email as an attachment to them. So I figured why not. I was getting one or two a day, so it wasn’t that annoying, but I thought it might help.

Funny thing is, after I started forwarding these emails to Comcast, I started getting more spam. I’d get as many as 10 a day. I kind of thought that was a little odd (about as odd as getting email on an account I’d never publicized).

Then I stopped forwarding to their spam reporting email. My spam email dropped back to one or two a day. I don’t know what’s going on, but Comcast seems to be a party to the spamming; I don’t know how else to explain it.

I know they have the power to shun an email address; they’ve shunned mine (my regular email address) a couple of times, after I’ve forwarded messages to my wife. I had to go through there web page to tell them that I wasn’t a spammer. It’s a real hassle, especially when you consider that they’re not really stopping spammers.

What I should do is just stop checking that email address. Maybe when Comcast’s email server fills up with spam, they’ll really tackle the problem.

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Save Nashville Speedway!

A few days ago, it was brought to my attention that a group (actually one guy) has started a drive to move the Tennessee State Fairgrounds and “redevelop” the property. He’s gone as far as creating a non-profit organization to raise money to this end.

Nowhere on his site does he mention anything about the Speedway. It’s obviously assumed that the “green” area that will replace the fairgrounds will also do away with the speedway (which I think is the real motive behind this movement). He also doesn’t mention that the house he owns in the neighborhood of the fairgrounds was purchased in 1999 for around $45,000, and that as of a couple of years ago, it was appraised at over $90,000, and that he’s complained about the noise from the track.

It just blows my mind how some people have the nerve to move next to an airport or race track or interstate and then complain about the noise. Uh, if you don’t like the noise, move. I live almost exactly two miles from the track (as the crow flies), and if the wind is blowing right, I can hear the cars during a race or practice. I live a lot closer to the interstate and can hear the trucks go by (despite the speed limit being lowered to 55 mph a couple of years ago, which was spearheaded by a lady who moved next to the interstate). I can also hear the trains occasionally at the CSX yard 3 miles away. Heck, I can even hear the Hillsboro High School band play on Friday nights. If these noises truly bothered me, I’d move away from them; it would never cross my mind to be one to complain about something that I knew full well was going to happen before I moved here.

To combat this, I’ve created a site that will hopefully counter this guy’s attempt at plowing under this historic site. It’s called SaveNashvilleSpeedway.com. The site just went live Sunday night with a placeholder page in order to begin getting indexed by the search engines. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be putting more info on the site, including historical information about past races there.

If Nashville put a tenth of the effort into saving this historic landmark as it did into saving the Predators NHL team, there wouldn’t be a problem.

So, take a look at SaveNashvilleSpeedway.com, and keep checking back over the next few weeks.

Oh, if you have any files or info regarding the track’s history, please feel free to send them to me at the email address on the site. I hope to make this an archive of race results, photos, and other mementos of the track.

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Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving. In addition to it being Thanksgiving, today is also the anniversary of this blog. It’s also the birthday of one of my granddaughters. She’s nine today and we all miss her very much.

Not much else to blog about. The racing season is over, and Hendrick won another championship. Champ Car wants Nashville to put up $2 million to have a grand prix here. Uh, yeah right.

I daresay that blogging (for all my readers, both of them) will be light the next few days. Got a lot of stuff to do around the house and I’m working on a programming project for a client, so the time off from my real job will hopefully let me get most of that done.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

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NASCAR: Final Nextel Cup Season Ends

Despite the fact that there are only 86 points separating the top two drivers in the Cup Series, this year’s Chase has, much like the regular season, been a snoozer.

Jimmy Johnson only has to finish 18th or higher to clinch the championship, no matter where Jeff Gordon finishes. So, will he race for five wins in a row or two championships in a row? Is it really good for the sport for one driver to win almost one third of the races? Or one team owner to win half of the races?

I get less interested in NASCAR each week. Apparently, I’m not alone. For the third year in a row, TV ratings for NASCAR are down. I think NASCAR confused the ratings bump they got from Dale Earnhardt’s death in early 2001 with actual fan interest. They must have thought that their new TV package was bringing in the viewers, when it fact it looks like people were watching just to see who would be the next fatality.

NASCAR just can’t seem to find a national audience. Maybe that’s why they’re thinking of “going green.” There are reports that they’re looking at E85 fuel, which is a mixture of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline. This from the sanctioning body that just recently stopped using leaded fuel.

I don’t have any idea why NASCAR thinks using an ethanol-based fuel will be a good idea. From a technical standpoint, there’s no need. E85 fuel results in lower gas mileage, which would be a nightmare for crew chiefs. From a “green” standpoint, I don’t think race cars emit enough cumulative “green house gas” to make a big difference, even if you do buy into the global warming theory. I can only conclude that NASCAR is doing this for PR purposes.

Speaking of boring championships, the Busch Series this year was a virtual repeat of last year, with the champion being a Cup driver and being crowned several races before the end of the season. I can’t think of any better way to ruin a series.

I doubt I’ll be watching much of the Homestead races. With the Truck Series on SpeedTV, I never can remember to tune in. And why should I watch “Cup Lite” on Saturday? I’ll probably check in periodically to see the status of the Cup race just to see what’s going on.

On a final note, if Google buys Sprint as rumored, will NASCAR fans put up with another name change? And will they tune in to watch Google Cup races?

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Robert Plant/Alison Krauss – Raising Sand

I vaguely remember hearing about the collaboration of Robert Plant and Alison Krauss a few months ago. At the time I thought it could either be an incredible project or a dud.

Surfing the net today, I discovered that their collaboration has been released. It’s called Raising Sand. I went to the web site for the project at www.robertplantalisonkrauss.com hoping to learn more about the project and maybe hear some samples of the resulting music.

The project was produced by T Bone Burnett. I have one of his CD’s called The Talking Animals. I bought that mainly for a song called “The Killer Moon” which initially reminded me of John Lennon. The rest of the CD is ok, but I never was interested enough in his stuff to buy anything else by him.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that you could listen to the entire Raising Sand album on line at the web site. I didn’t really know what to expect. Alison Krauss is probably the best female singer I’ve ever heard. And of course, Robert Plant is a legend in rock music. Maybe I halfway expected them to sound something like Hayseed Dixie. Boy, was I wrong.

If you’re looking for upbeat music, this isn’t the album for you. It’s definitely not a cross between rock and bluegrass. I don’t really know how to describe it. I guess it reminds me more of Cowboy Junkies than anything, and I don’t like the Cowboy Junkies.

I think the main problem with this album is the song selection. Apparently Burnett picked the songs.  I guess he was trying to avoid anything that might be similar to what Plant and Krauss would normally do, and I think he succeeded very well at that.

I was familiar with one song on Raising Sand. “Please Read The Letter” was a cut on the Jimmy Page/Robert Plant CD called Walking Into Clarksdale. Without Page’s guitar work, the song lacks spark and punch. But actually, most of Raising Sand could be said to lack spark and punch.

The drums (or whatever; it’s hard to tell) are some of the muddiest sounding drums I’ve ever heard. The vocals, from two of the best vocalists in the business, sound so subdued that you have to wonder if they were really into the project. According to the video on their website, they were into it.

I think Rounder made a big mistake when they put the whole album on line to listen to. I would have probably bought the album unheard had I seen it in a record store. I’m definitely not going to do that now.

I really hope these two get together again, but with a different producer. They have incredible potential as a duet.

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Avoid Member’s Edge – Block Third Party Billing

We noticed we were being charged $20 for voice mail on our AT&T bill this month. The only problem is, we turned off voice mail at least a year ago. Turns out it was from a “third party billing company” called ILD Teleservices, AKA Members Edge.

I called the number AT&T gave me to get this “service” canceled (877-448-3232). A recording thanking me for calling Member’s Edge told me my call was important to them and that all of their agents were talking to other Member’s Edge customers. I waited on hold for about 10 minutes, then a beep and silence. I called Member’s Edge back about 30 minutes later, was told again that Member’s Edge considered my call important, and after about another 10 minutes on hold, “Sonya” answered. I explained to her that I’d never heard of Member’s Edge or IDS Teleservices. She explained to me that someone signed up for Member’s Edge. That person turns out to be a guest in my house.

I told her that our guest didn’t have the authority to sign up for anything that would add charges to my bill, but she insisted that didn’t matter; if they put in a birth date that shows they’re over 18 and a mother’s maiden name, that’s enough for them.

After a little back and forth, she offered to issue me two month’s credits. I told her that I had charges for three months and that wasn’t acceptable. She basically told me that was all she could do. So I told her that I’d just not pay the charge on the current bill and they could sue me.

The bottom line here is, if I know your address and phone number, I can go to the Member’s Edge web site and sign you up for stuff you don’t want or need. If I’m unscrupulous, and I work for one of these companies on commission, I could sign up a whole bunch of people and make a ton of money. There’s literally no confirmation done by your phone company that these charges are legitimate. Their system just takes the info from the third party, and if the info matches, they add it to your phone bill.

AT & T does have a free service that will block third party billing, but you first have to even know about it, and second you have to call them and opt in to it. This is backwards. If I want to allow third parties to put charges on my phone bill, then I should have to call the phone company to tell them to allow it. At the very least, I should have to speak to someone at the phone company to verify that I’m signing up for something to be billed to my phone bill.

I’d suggest that everyone call their phone company right now and sign up to block third party billing to prevent companies like IDS Teleservices/Member’s Edge from submitting charges to your phone company. Otherwise you’re leaving yourself open to having to pay for charges for a service you didn’t sign up for. And by all means, read the fine print on these web sites that try to entice you by giving you free things…free until you find out you have to “complete” the sponsors’ offers.

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NASCAR: Atlanta, Memphis, Yawn

If you’re one of those racing fans who only watch races for the wrecks, then you must have thought the Memphis Busch race Saturday was an exciting race. What did they have, 25 cautions for almost half the laps?

My theory is that  this is a result of all the “Busch whackers” (guess they’ll have to figure out another punny name for those guys next year) who run week in and week out. This race had fewer Cup drivers and more Busch drivers. Those Busch drivers have not had the track time or the experience racing with other Busch drivers, so they’re more likely to make mistakes.

I hear that NASCAR is thinking of not awarding points to anyone in the Grand National Series who’s also in the top 35 in the Cup series. I think that’s a step in the right direction. What they really need to do is just have drivers declare for a championship. If Carl Edwards wants to defend his Grand National championship, then he’d be ineligible to run for the Cup championship. That way it’s in the drivers’ hands.

As far as the Atlanta Cup race goes, I’m still sleepy from the little bit I watched. It look like it might have a decent finish, but NASCAR’s choice to throw the yellow and white flags knocked that out. What’s wrong with not throwing the white flag out if there’s a caution? They should only end up under if they’ve tried a green-white-checker finish a time or two.

Sunday’s Cup race also marked the first time I can remember where a track champion from the Nashville Fairgrounds track did not compete. Jeff Green, Sterling Marlin, and I believe, Chad Chaffin are the only remaining Nashville track champions competing who compete or want to compete regularly. With Marlin and Green getting pushed out of their rides, that just leaves Chaffin in the Truck Series.

It’s definitely the end of an era. Nashville has had a track champion in the Cup Series competing on a regular basis for most of NASCAR’s history. NASCAR continues to leave its past behind.

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Your Money’s No Good Here

Apple has announced that they will no longer accept cash from people wanting to buy an iPhone. They’re also limiting the number of iPhones a person can buy to two.

While I agree that they have the right to limit the number of phones a customer can buy, I have to wonder if it’s legal for them to not accept cash for the phone?

On all the bills I have it says “This note is legal tender for all debts, public and private.” This policy would seem to discriminate against people who don’t have or won’t get a credit card.

I used to like Apple, but they kind of got weird after the Lisa came out. My second computer was an Apple ][+ (which is still in the garage somewhere; I wonder if it still boots up?).

But over the years they’ve copped an attitude that seems so indicate that they look down on people who don’t have the decency to buy their products. And to some extent, a lot of Apple buyers have this same attitude.

Personally, I like being able to work on my own computer. If the power supply goes out, it’s nice to hop over to the local computer store and get a replacement. You can’t do that with Apple products because of their proprietary nature.

Microsoft gets a lot of heat for being a “monopoly”. Seems to me that Apple’s a monopoly too, but they haven’t been under government investigation for over 10 years.

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Hey, Jude!

Sitting here listing to the Beatles 1, and Hey Jude is playing.

Does anyone else think that Ringo’s drums sound like cardboard boxes? The snare doesn’t have any top end and the bass drum sounds like he’s kicking a Kleenex box.

I’m just sayin…