Cliffs Riffs - Stuph n Nonsense

Wow. Have you checked out ticket prices for some of the major acts on the road this summer? Give me a break. My wife was interested in seeing Steely Dan in Chicago - $220 to $370 per seat. Bite me boys. While I am not stupid enoough to expect to see Genesis for $7 (my friends and I were fortunate enough to see Peter Gabriel and the lads do the Lamb Lies Down on Broadway show. We were absolutely blown away.) like I did when I was in high school, I am sure not going to shell out $150 plus per chair to take in their re-union tour. Speaking of seeing The Lamb show, within two days of the concert all 4 of us who attended went out and bought the double album the show was promoting. We also bought albums from their catalogue and new ones as they came out. That was how things used to run I think. If you liked the band/artist, then you went out and bought the music. Maybe the outrageous ticket prices have something to do with the fact that CD sales are waaay down and everybody and their mother ...

Wow. A political leader of a huge metropolis that is getting things done. Just read that Mayor Bloomberg is going to have NYC full of hybrid taxis in the next few years. Good on him and good for New York. I have also read that the general health of his constituants is getting better every year. (Our country's awareness of trans fats got a huge boost from the actions taken in New York.) Consider this: "As Mayor, Michael Bloomberg has implemented a comprehensive citywide public health policy known as Take Care New York, a program of 10 preventive health steps that every person can follow to significantly improve his or her health. Since being introduced in 2003, Take Care New York has successfully increased New Yorkers' access to health care, reduced smoking rates, increased HIV testing and colon cancer screening, and further reduced childhood lead poisoning and infant mortality rates to historic lows. For the first time since World War II, life expectancy for the average Ne...

There is a disadvantage to having almost all of the media produced in big metropolitan areas. The viewpoints expressed do not accurately reflect America - they probably do accurately reflect America in NY, LA, Chicago, DC, etc. etc., but there are millions of people who live in the middle of the country. Watched a show last night about sexual attraction, etc and they had viewpoints through out the show from what could first be perceived as a rainbow of people - straight guy, gay guy, straight lady, gay lady, bi-sexual lady, etc. But after listening to their pronouncements for a little over an hout (and I generally liked the show - don't get me wrong) I realized that while they might represent a microcosm of Vancouver BC ( lots of words souded a bit Canadian) or some other metropolis, the average Joe and Josephine was missing. Then I realized that is the case in way too much of what is produced for radio and television. It seems like the programs, ideas, points of view, and "fa...

I was greatly relieved to learn that the major news networks are "cutting back" on their showing of the video made by the maniac who shot all those people at Virginia Tech. I refused to watch a single minute of it - I am not going to glorify that murderer by paying any attention to anything he has to say. Energy like that needs to be buried, not released.

Recently a really great thing happened here in Lowell, Michigan. Litehouse Foods announced they are letting the workers of the company become shareholders. Why is this so great? First, let me give you a little history. Around these parts Litehouse Foods used to be known as Chadalee Farms. They made horseradish to begin with and then branched out into dressings and dips. Cahdalee was a small(ish) family company that began in the kitchen and expanded. They built their reputation by using fresh, natural ingredients and sales grew. Meanwhile out in Idaho, Litehouse Foods was rolling along much the same path. A few years ago the two companies merged thereby offering more products to a larger area of the country. There were constant offers from huge corporations to buy Litehouse. Wendell Christoff and the other owners could have added millions to their fortunes by selling the company to the highest bidder. In case you live in a cave, what usually happens in such a case is that the corporatio...

(Erik Buell is a motorcycle designer and manufacturer. He is associated with Harley Davidson, but his motorcycles are very innovative and are very different from Harleys.) Dear Erik, Your designs have always caught my attention. The styling of Buell motorcycles have always appealed to me and your methods for putting the weight of the bike low are genius. Your placement of the exhaust system rocks. You really got my attention with your introduction of the Ulysses. A couple of my riding friends have them and I was able to ride one on two different occasions. Great riding bike. Too bad your bikes are sold at Harley dealerships. Most of the dealers in my area treat Buells like a red headed step-child that needs to be tucked away in the corner of the dealership - not an innovative bike worthy of center stage. Harley dealers are less than excited about taking a BMW in trade. One salesman who was moderately excited about selling a 2006 Uly that was lanquishing on the sales floor last week, sc...

It is too easy to fall into the trap of complaining all the time - especially about the "news" we receive on a national, regional, and local level. Came across a couple of good news items in the last couple of days. First and foremost an elected "official" who is willing to put his money where his mouth is. A Michigan congressman (I cannot find the article to get his name) wants to take a salary cut and wants others to do the same in order to help the State of Michigan out of its budgetary quagmire. Good on you, sir. I am going to keep looking to see if I can locate the story and get this guys name. I want to communicate with him directly. On a more global note- the US and most of Europe are turning the tide on deforestsation according to the Food and Agriculture Organization, which is based in Rome and reports on such things. They stated that "careful forest management has had positive results" in the US and most of Europe. The article went on to state th...