Ready, Set, Ramble

Here we are in the middle of this week, and here's what's running through my mind:

- First off, we can file this one under "Things I Just Don't Get About Cable Providers"... I always get pissed off since I just can't get away from the New York sports teams, and rightfully so - I'm in an extended suburb of New York City. But one time I wanted to watch a game involving a New York sports team, I am unable. Case in point, Opening Night for the National Hockey League. Now, I've never claimed to be a huge hockey fan, but I'm legitimately excited for it to be back and I do follow the Flyers to a certain extent. So tonight, they play the New York Rangers, and since ESPN's television contract with the NHL is now defunct, the Outdoor Living Network (OLN) picked up a number of NHL games. One problem: I don't get OLN. So I get the Islanders on the MSG Network and the Devils on Fox Sports Net. But wait, it gets better: I am flipping through all of the crazy number channels because nothing else was on...you know..."let's see what's on channel 638 just to see if it comes in". Sure enough, between channels 420 and 430, I get a free preview of the NHL Center Ice which picks up almost all of the hockey games tonight. I got 7 games at 7:30pm, and another 5 games that started later on the West Coast. Add in the other 2 games I mentioned before on the basic cable and thats 14 games that I could have watched this evening. Let's review...that's 14 games, involving 28 teams in the league. There are 30 teams total, which means that I didn't pick up one game: Flyers/Rangers. What a bunch of crap. I was pissed. And then I got over it when I realized that I could watch 7 games at once, and later when I realized that the Flyers had a 3-2 lead and ended up losing 5-3. Let's just hope my free preview of NHL Center Ice lasts at least another couple of days.

- I'd like to take a poll of all of the readers of Rolling Stone and find out how many actually read the political articles that they run in each issue. I love an article bashing George W. Bush as much as the next guy, but if it were up to me, I'd rather have them run one more article about an up-and-coming band, or another interview with a big name musician. Just my two cents.

- As many of you know, I'm quite a music fanatic. Always up for some good music...pretty much anything in the realm of rock 'n roll. One thing I've noticed though is that I tend to be intimidated by some of the musicians from the 60's and 70's with huge discographies. Example: I was never a huge Bob Dylan fan, but rather a casual Bob Dylan fan. I know his hits, but the extent of my Dylan music knowledge is within the boundaries of those Greatest Hits albums. I always say to myself, "I should really get ahold of some of the other material...the lesser known songs, the b-sides, etc." But then I just don't know where to start. There's simply an over-abundance of Dylan music and I find it difficult to just dive in. Same goes for the Grateful Dead. I enjoy their music, but these guys only played like 10,000 shows and probably have almost as many songs. Ok, so I'm exaggerating, but you get the idea. I know the "American Beauty" era material and many of the hits, but beyond that, I'm not too familiar. I just wonder...where do you dive in? I think I need to just pick one of their tours and begin digging.

Calling it a night. Back tomorrow.