Today’s Filler Post:
Pretty cool list I found off Jimmy Eat World ‘s Facebook.
Absolute Punk’s MUST HAVE ALBUMS (multi-genre)
Some good albums on there- Blink182 and dc Talk ranking high is very interesting…
It has user comments and explanations. Not a bad read. 
NPR fired Juan Williams and it’s such a disgrace/ The man’s done more than many liberals for the cause of race/ He said something that many of us occasionally feel/ He was fired by cowards for not sharing their zeal.
A few days ago NPR (National Public Radio) fired liberal commentator Juan Williams for things he said on The O’Reilly Factor on Fox News.
Juan mentioned that sometimes he feels uneasy when he sees people wearing ‘traditional Muslim garb’ on airplanes. He prefaced this personal sharing of feelings by mentioning his work for civil rights, and later clarified that he wished he didn’t feel this way, and that it was not a comment towards Muslims in general.
Of course, the far-left media (fyi- I dislike the far-left and the far-right equally) took what he said out of context to make him seem like a bigot. Juan Williams! One of the best champions of civil rights and equality. A fine man, and a fine liberal.
Granted it wasn’t the best sound-bite he’s uttered. He could have said what he said more gracefully. But we all say things poorly sometimes, especially when speaking about personal feelings.
NPR fired him two days later, via phone call.
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The reason? “For stating personal opinion as a news-analyst.” Uh, don’t 85% of ‘jouranlists’ do this on a daily basis across all mediums of information in nearly every country? Isn’t that what NRP does to make a buck (and fails,) what most ‘news’ outlets do?
This has absolutely NOTHING to do with Juan being a center-Left analyst. NOTHING to do with his long association with Fox News, offering a (well-informed) liberal opinion on shows where sometimes the liberal view isn’t taken up. NOTHING to do with how Juan doesn’t fall into line with the far-left hypocritical open-mindedness-unless-you-don’t-agree-with-what-we-say dogma. (Hahaha, I sound like an angry blogger, but I’m not. I just don’t like idiotic moves based on ideology which is covered up by further idiotic and useless excuses.) NOTHING to do with NPR telling Juan to quit mentiong their name on the O’Reilly Factor when he made appearances.
Should we say that NPR fired Juan for not keeping in line? No, that would be too conspiratorial…
To further NPR’s amazingly graceful display of professionalism, one of their highest ranking officials said Juan should have consulted his ‘pyschiatrist or publicisit’ before making those comments. Talk about slapping a man for no reason, and then kicking him while he’s down.
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But this is already working out well for Juan.
People on the Left and the Right are sticking up for him, from Whoopie Goldberg to Karl Rove. He’s getting a lot of publicity for something that should have never happened. I know he’s probably sad (and perhaps outraged) but in the end Juan wins and NPR continues to lose. Who listens to NPR anyway? I mean, honestly?
Why are we, the American people, partially funding a major news organization anyway? Big Brother anyone?
(I am currently experiencing WordPress difficulties, which impairs my ability to post only the first part of this post [with a click to read more link], my ability to post pictures, and basically do anything to make this post look COOL.)
So, I’ve decided to throw up a couple of FILLER blog posts to make it look as if I’m actually updating this thing.
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Today’s FILLER is the most fillerish of fillery things you could ever fill- a music list. Nothing induces r.e.m. sleep quite like USELESS LISTS made by people with pretentious opinions they feel obligated to share.
I made this list a few weeks ago when I was down with a partial migraine and had the joy (mostly of the torturous variety) of witnessing VH1′s new list of the 100 Greatest Artists in History. I’m pretty sure they mean Mainstream music. I was excited at first, as I tuned in around #40- VH1 makes good lists. At least, they used to make good lists. Their 100 Greatest list from the late 1990′s was pretty decent. The brand new list, was atrocious. Atrocious is the worst possible word I could think of to describe the awfulness of this list. A close second to atrocious was Gaga-Cyrus. This list was both. I seriously question the musical tastes of my generation.
Here’s a link to VH1′s 100 Artists List courtesy of Stereogum.
VH1′s 100 Greatest List
There’s also a grip of user comments on there, endlessly and pointlessly debating VH1′s selections (which are awful.)
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Some of the high(low)lights of VH1′s List were:
- Michael Jackson at 2? Top Ten? Yes. 2nd all time? No.
- Justin Timberlake at 66? 66?? 66?????
- Jay-z (41) above 2pac (69) and Eminem (79)? & Run DMC (76) and Public Enemy (54)?
- Madonna at 16? Ahead of Aretha? Right. Total sense. Total.
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So I KNEW I could make a much better list myself. So I did. With some real thought. It’s probably the best usless biased list ever made, but it’s fun. For me. Not for you.
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RYAN’S 100 GREATEST ARTISTS LIST
***Ryan’s Criteria***
The following artists were judged on: Influence, Impact, Success, Talent, Critical Acclaim, and My Opinion. I’m sticking mostly to the popular mainstream (which historically leans pop/rock, and today also includes rap, r&b, and some country.) So stuff like Mos Def and They Might Be Giants didn’t make the cut, no matter how bada$$ they are. Also, anything from the last few years is still too new to make the cut.
Since this is a Mainstream Music list, I have tried to stick to artists who were very influential AND successful in each genre, yet had a pop/mainstream appeal as well as an impact on the music industry (and occasionally pop-culture) itself.
Just to clarify: this is not my personal favorite list, nor who I think is the most talented. It’s more of a Mainstream-Influence-Success list. If you were to look at which artists influenced popular music AND were successful (critically and commercially) at the same time, as well as integral to mainstream music today, you’d probably come up with a list somewhat close to this one.
I know you, constant reader, do not ultimately care, but I figured it’s worth a quick fun read. As always, and particularly with this entry, it’s fun to get a little feedback. 
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THE LIST:
01. The Beatles
02. Led Zeppelin
03. Bob Dylan
04. The Rolling Stones
05. Michael Jackson
06. Elvis Presley
07. Ray Charles
08. Pink Floyd
09. Stevie Wonder
10. Jimi Hendrix
11. The Beach Boys
12. Chuck Berry
13. The Who
14. Queen
15. Nirvana
16. Eric Clapton
17. Prince
18. U2
19. David Bowie
20. Bob Marley
21. Aretha Franklin
22. The Eagles
23. Elton John
24. Marvin Gaye
25. The Doors
26. John Lennon
27. Neil Young
28. The Clash
29. James Brown
30. Bruce Springsteen
31. Janis Joplin
32. Johnny Cash
33. The Kinks
34. Little Richard
35. AC/DC
36. Buddy Holly
37. R.E.M.
38. Sly & The Family Stone
39. Otis Redding
40. Madonna
41. Tom Petty & Heartbreakers
42. Van Morrison
43. Cream
44. Hank Williams Sr.
45. Creedence Clearwater Revival
46. Black Sabbath
47. Joni Mitchell
48. Metallica
49. Patsy Cline
50. Guns N’ Roses
51. Smokey Robinson
52. Willie Nelson
53. Miles Davis
54. The Police
55. Tupac Shakur
56. Van Halen
57. The Ramones
58. Eminem
59. Rush
60. Al Green
61. Radiohead
62. Loretta Lynn
63. Roy Orbison
64. Stevie Ray Vaughn
65. James Taylor
66. Muddy Waters
67. Paul McCartney
68. Public Enemy
69. Aerosmith
70. Tina Turner
71. Fleetwood Mac
72. The Notorious B.I.G.
73. The Velvet Underground
74. Lynyrd Skynyrd
75. George Strait
76. Billy Joel
77. Run-DMC
78. Iggy Pop & The Stooges
79. Waylon Jennings
80. Simon & Garfunkel
81. Earth, Wind & Fire
82. Pearl Jam
83. Parliament-Funkadelic
84. Diana Ross & The Supremes
85. The Cure
86. Santana
87. Outkast
88. Green Day
89. Dave Matthews Band
90. Garth Brooks
91. Alison Krauss & Union Station
92. Tool
93. Randy Travis
94. Oasis
95. Red Hot Chili Peppers
96. The Temptations
97. Allman Brothers
98. The Beastie Boys
99. Judas Priest
100. Mariah Carey
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I have legit reasons for the artists on the list and their position there in, but I’ll save those for any feedback I get. If I get any. Which I probably won’t.
How’s that for a Filler Blog Post?
- Ryan
My Very First Post. – 4 Years Later.
A long, long time ago in.. well.. this galaxy, a dashing and talented young man decided to start a Blog about nothing. Well, that is not exactly true. He wanted to start a Blog about what is important in each of our lives. About current news and trends; about politics and society; about the arts- music, books, film, etc; about amusing and ironic things; about you know, life. A Blog to discuss what is important to you (or important to Ryan and his delusional belief that what he says matters to everyone!) Thus on the 24th day of June, 2006 in the Year of our Lord, Ryan Saves The Day was born.
RyanSavesTheDay.com was the dream child of Ryan Travis and Mike Antoni- two friends who like to talk at great length about any subject you put in front of them. At first things went well. Mike’s personal Blog took off and he fell down the rabbit hole that is the Internet, and now makes his living online. Ryan continued to do the Internet thing, but the Blog fell to the wayside. One year went by, and then two, followed by three and four and Ryan Saves The Day went on to the “Oh Yeah, That Thing!” afterlife. Until now.
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Ryan Travis here. Okay, so it’s August 24th, 2010, and I’m finally posting my first Blog entry. It’s just a little late. 50 months to be exact. Four years. 16 million babies born between the time I made the site, and this post. Future Blog readers, perhaps?
That’s right folks, my ‘amazing Blog idea’ that seemed so important and captivating in 2006, took FOUR YEARS to write. Actually, I spent about 10 minutes writing it and about 2,100,000 minutes to click ‘add new post.’ In other words, I’m really good at this. I should win an award for being lazy and incompetent.
Here is what the Blog looked like in 2006 when Mike and I designed the site. It’s pretty funny, but we really knew nothing about how to Blog (we didn’t know Wordpress existed) or design sites. (It’s actually not too bad, really.)
RyanSavesTheDay 2006