A La Carte Programming

I currently do not pay for TV. The reason is simple: other than sports and a couple of shows, I just don't watch it. Which leads me to my next point: A La Carte TV would be nice.

For people like me, who literally would only get a handful of channels, it would be great, and probably cost effective. However, many people who want A La Carte for the same reason probably don't realize that they wouldn't save money. People have a tendency to think "well I get 100 channels and only watch 15. Therefore, I should be able to choose only those 15 and pay (current price)/100 *15. This probably wouldn't be the case. I'll bet if you picked the average number of channels that people actually watch, they would want to charge you the same as you pay now. The fact is, they know you only will watch a fraction of the channels, and it doesn't cost them anything to give you a bundle. If you had the average number of channels watched - this would by definition cost the same as it does now. In that case, you would get the channels you watch and pay for it. The way it's done now, you get and pay for the channels you watch, and get a bunch bundled as well.

I however think people should be given the choice. In most cases, you get no such choice currently. For me, I would probably come out ahead.

I certainly am not a fan of the cable industry. Comcast is pure evil. There service is absolutely disgusting. Name one other utility that makes you wait a week before getting an appointment, and then gives you a 3 HOUR WINDOW in which to show up?

Another thing. People talk about all the variety and huge number of channels, including many "niche" channels. Really? You certainly get a ton of channels, but how many really deliver anything unique, or "niche" in any way. Channels were far more "niche" back when you got only 35 of them. Most channels especially the niche ones lately, seem to fill their schedules with horribly stupid reality TV. Not really niche anymore when your entire lineup consists of reality shows having nothing to do with the channel's "topic". For example, with the History Channel (one of the last holdouts), you used to really get documentaries about history and nothing else. Now, "Ice Road Truckers" is in the lineup, and the new tagline is "History made every day." How stupid is that? More like "reason I don't watch that any more made every day". Maybe that crap gets higher ratings, but that is one of the precise reasons I don't want to pay for it. Actually, I'd probably enjoy watching about the Ice Road Truckers if it was presented as a documentary instead of a reality show with crappier camerawork and a bunch of BS drama I couldn't care less about.

Correct Description of the Greatest Band of All Time

This is from Gibson's Top 50 Guitarists, and is a minor followup to my previous post. This geezer hits the nail on the head

Rock’s sorcerer supreme, Jimmy Page took the blues, rockabilly and folk and fired it out of a cannon with the release of Led Zeppelin’s eponymous debut in 1969.

I have always considered Zep to be a mixture of Folk, Blues, and 50s Rock, played more intensely and loudly than normal music. 3 Out of 4, guess what Rockabilly is? A sub-genre of 50s rock.

Again, it has always bothered me that Zep is considered "metal". Not that there is anything wrong with that, but they just aren't. Besides inventing metal when they wrote "Immigrant Song", they are hardly the "definitive metal band", as one review read.

I salute you, man who has listened to the albums you write about.