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Video killed the radio star; the drummer killed the drum solo

From the LAT, Pulitzer Prize winner (IIRC) Dan Neil take on the drum solo:

Once upon a time, giants thundered across the land: Moon, Bonham, Baker, Palmer. These sweaty and indifferently groomed young men gave the world that curious and hard-to-love artifact of rock, the drum solo.

Won't somebody please hold up a flaming lighter?

For a couple of decades—from, say, 1967, the release of the first Vanilla Fudge album with Carmine Appice on skins, to the break-up of the Police, when drummer Stewart Copeland and Sting could at last no longer stand the sight of each other—the drum solo was a reliable part of arena rock's audio furniture.

And I was there. Nazareth. Black Sabbath. Pink Floyd. Yes. Emerson Lake and Palmer. Blue Oyster Cult. Aerosmith. Queen. The Who. Jethro Tull. I'm one of those few survivors who saw Led Zeppelin in concert—how quaint that sounds now—and heard John Bonham play the furious and fundamental "Moby Dick," with its phase-shifted tympani, tom-toms played barehanded like Indian tabla, machine-gun triplets and cymbals hissing like lava pouring into the sea.

It's been 25 years since Bonham's tragically clichéd drummer's death—choking on his own vomit during an alcoholic blackout—and while he is sorely missed, the same can't be said of the drum solo per se. Somewhere along the way, the drum solo became a rock-and-roll punch line of the "More cowbell!" variety. Among the top concert draws of 2005, the Rolling Stones didn't break stride to give Charlie Watts—an exceptional jazz drummer when not propping up Mick and the lads—a 20-minute showcase; neither did U2 step aside for an intimate moment with drummer Larry Mullen Jr., because if they did, well, just think of the crush at the snack bar.

The passing of rock drum solos was so unlamented that I might have missed it but for a new DVD by Neil Peart called "Anatomy of a Drum Solo." Peart is the drummer/percussionist for the arena rock institution Rush and is widely considered the greatest living rock drummer. By my calculation, Peart is also the most prolific drum soloist ever. In its astounding 31-year history with its original lineup, Rush has spent more time on the road than the Roman army, and there was always, always a drum solo in the show. At least there was the five times I saw them.So I called Neil Peart to ask: What happened to the drum solo?

"Rock drummers killed the solo themselves," Peart tells me when we meet at a coffee shop in Santa Monica. "It got to be so predictable and manipulative. They cheapened it by making it a clap-along or a boring ramble."

Asians to challenge German tourism record

From Reuters/Washington Post:

LONDON (Reuters) - Japanese and Chinese travelers are set to challenge the dominance of the Germans over the next 15 years for the title of world's most prolific globe-trotters, according to a survey on Friday.

Research company MINTEL said Japan and China will generate around four times as many outbound trips in 2020 as they did last year, making them number two and three respectively behind Germany....

Overall, the number of trips taken abroad from the world's top 15 traveling nations will double by 2020 to 836.6 million from 433.3 million, the survey predicted.

...Back in 2003, Germans ousted Americans as the most traveled nationality.

Last year, Germans alone accounted for over 86.6 million trips abroad, with Britons in second place (65.3 million) and Americans trailing in third (58.3 million).

Cantonese is losing its voice

From the LAT:

Speakers of the spicy tongue that can make words of love 
sound like a fight are having to learn its linguistic kin, 
the mellower Mandarin.
...
Cantonese, a sharp, cackling dialect full of slang and 
exaggerated expressions, was never the dominant language of
China. But it came to dominate the Chinatowns of North America
because the first immigrants came from the Cantonese-speaking 
southern province of Guangdong, where China first opened its 
ports to foreigners centuries ago.

It is also the chief language of Hong Kong, the vital trading 
and financial center that became China's link to the West.

But over the last three decades, waves of Mandarin-speaking
mainland Chinese and Taiwanese immigrants have diluted the 
influence of both the Cantonese language and the pioneering 
Cantonese families who ran Chinatowns for years....

UA- discounted coach awards to Beijing or Shanghai

While it's not as good as a 30K miles award to China, view from the wing notes United's 45K awards to China through 3/31.

It was Mark E. Smith & Brix- and a million others

The Guardian's Dave Simpson "made it his quest to track down everyone who has ever been a member":

Excuse me, weren't you in the Fall?
It's a Tuesday morning in December, and I'm ringing people called Brown in Rotherham. "Hello," I begin again. "I'm trying to trace Jonnie Brown who used to play in the Fall. He came from Rotherham and I wondered if you might be a relative." "The Who?" asks the latest Mr Brown. "No. The Fall - the band from Salford. He played bass for three weeks in 1978." "Is this some kind of joke?"

Wireless battle at Boston Logan- updated

I've been 1/2 following the wifi at logan debate- in a nutshell, it seems as though Massport wants to be the exclusive provider of wireless at BOS- citing security, not profit, concerns, of course. The Boston Globe reports that the lines are drawn:

Sides chosen in Logan WiFi battle
Wireless and airport lobbies join dispute
By Peter Howe, Globe Staff  |  January 2, 2006

Logan International Airport officials' ongoing quest to ban airline lounges from offering passengers free WiFi Internet services is angering a growing array of powerful Capitol Hill lobbying groups, who say Logan could set a dangerous nationwide precedent for squelching wireless services.

Already under fire from the biggest airline lobby, the Air Transport Association, and the manufacturer-backed Consumer Electronics Association, Logan officials are also coming under new criticism from the top US wireless lobby, CTIA-The Wireless Association. All three groups are siding with Continental Airlines Inc., which has asked the Federal Communications Commission to overturn a Logan order last year shutting off Continental's WiFi service in its Presidents Club lounge in Logan's Terminal C.

Soon after activating its own $8-a-day WiFi service in the summer of 2004, the Massachusetts Port Authority, which runs Logan, ordered Continental and American Airlines to shut down WiFi services in their Logan lounges. Massport also ordered Delta Air Lines Inc. not to turn on a planned WiFi service in its new $500 million Terminal A that opened last March.

...At Logan, subscribers get some free content, including flight and weather information, but have to pay $8 for a 24-hour access to the full Internet.

Read the article for more. Also from the Globe- Logan may get non-stops to China:

Boston travelers would be able to fly directly to China by the end of this year under a deal worked out between China-based Hainan Airlines and Massport, city and state officials said yesterday.