nominating my *personal* "best" NBA/NHL championship rounds *this* decade; looking back at the *history* of local radio; a *decade* since "DTV"

As always around this time of year just about every year except for 2005 (at least recently), the NBA (Golden State Warriors-Toronto Raptors) and NHL (Boston Bruins-St. Louis Blues) have again reached their "championship" rounds; my personal "best" NBA Finals/Stanley Cup Final "duo" this decade, at least in part 'cause of just how plain exciting each series was that June, I'd have to say 2013 would win that award in a landslide, in my opinion, since the Miami Heat epically rebounded from being "on the brink" with just seconds remaining in game 6 that year to end up defeating the San Antonio Spurs; meanwhile, the Boston Bruins and Chicago Blackhawks both emerged from the lockout-shortened season a few months prior to square off in an insanely "back-and-forth" series and end up with an equally insane ending to the series, which saw the Blackhawks celebrating their (back then) second championship this past decade; combine that with a (relative) lack of "sweeps" (the same team winning all of the first four games of those series, out of a possible maximum of seven games per series) - in the NBA, the only one this decade was last year (Cleveland Cavaliers-Golden State Warriors) - before then, the most recent one of those came over a decade ago (Cleveland Cavaliers-San Antonio Spurs 2007), while the NHL rebounded from experiencing four consecutive "sweeps" during the last half of the '90s, three of which involved the Detroit Red Wings, to not have had any since then, while, in baseball, the only one of those this decade was back in 2012 (Detroit Tigers-San Fransisco Giants, a series that I, personally, remember completely missing, since this area got impacted by Hurricane Sandy that week; just like the NBA, the previous "sweep" there was also in 2007), along with my personal life being essentially as "carefree" as it had ever been, at least at the time, since I basically only had to worry about the last few final exams of my high school years, otherwise re-living old K-12 memories, which were pretty much the definition of the phrase "opposites attract" (more about that down below), for the most part, and June 2013 would end up being one of the most glorious months in my entire life so far!

...speaking of Canada, it seemed, growing up, that Montreal (which is at least close to Toronto...) somehow always ended up being my family's "beginning/end of 'stage'" destination - from 2006, during a time in which I spent pretty much every other Friday/Saturday night or Sunday afternoon over at the Meadowlands, which, looking back, (A) gave me one of my old middle/high school friends, who spent almost as much time in music-based activities as I always did in sporting-related ones, in particular, since, as random as something like that might seem, we essentially originally ended up "bonding" over both having spent (different) weekends up there back then, stretching that whole original "bond" all the way up until 2013, and (B) ended up keeping me in French language classes pretty much the entire time after, along with then continuing to return there every so often, at least up through 2013 (...also, a diner recommendation...); I think, at this point, returning to one of the places I always loved visiting back then could only help me regain what's left of my "sanity"...

This past weekend brought about the "end of an era" on local radio, as WPLJ discontinued music-based programming after almost a half-century of various of those types of formats; "PLJ", as its hosts constantly referred to the station on-air, was, quite honestly, the first station in quite a few years, at least around here, to change broadcasting formats, but merely one of many to have done so over the decades locally; in fact, I'd say that just within my lifetime, it seems like just about every station has changed formats - like, maybe a handful of them still remain the same as they were when I was born/barely "alive" back in the late '90s; WCBS-880, 1010-WINS, and WBBR-1130 have all had their various "all-news" formats my entire life, but older generations around here probably still remember when stations like WABC (770), WOR (710), and WNYM (970) still aired music instead of talk, as they have in recent years; also, WCBS-FM controversially changed from its "oldies" format between 2005 and 2007; also, many of the other FM stations around here were originally like that along with "CBS-FM", but have all since become "contemporary" in format, and, for that matter, if you've listened to 101.1 around here in recent years, you've most likely noticed that not even that station has its famous "oldies" format anymore, having moved exclusively to post-1970 playlists; for me, personally, as I'm sure you've noticed by now, since I keep talking about sports so often, those stations (WEPN and WFAN) have added "simulcasts" within the past decade or so, and, in WEPN's case, dropped its AM position (1050-AM) just in time for the 2012 college football season in order to move to 98.7-FM, which, in turn, ended up eliminating WBLS and WRKS-FM, both of which served the local African-American radio-listening community; also, WFAN moved to 101.9-FM right around that time, yet that station at least kept its 660-AM signal after doing so, so, with all the changes in radio around here historically, culminating, most recently, with WPLJ having left the air, at least as we all knew it around here over the decades, this past weekend, there have at least been a few "constants" remaining in local radio broadcasting in recent years!

Also, this month will have marked a decade now, if you can believe it, since television went "all-digital" in this country; that switch, postponed from its original date (2/17/09-6/12/09), happened so long ago, in fact, that I was technically still in middle school at the time, albeit with only a couple of weeks remaining in said "stage" of my life; the local television landscape, though, in contrast with the radio landscape, has pretty much remained constant, albeit with many more - perhaps you could even say hundreds, of various cable/satellite channels added over the years, but with very little of an "independent" presence, except for WLNY (channel 10), which kept its short late-night Long Island-based newscast up until 2012, although WMBC-TV, which once aired Asian-language newscasts, has maintained a 5 P.M. newscast these past few years; unfortunately, the timing of said newscast has led to just about no ratings being registered for that program; certainly, some of that must be due to channels 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, and (to a lesser extent) the various "public television" stations around here, although, later this year, channel 11 will change ownership for the first time ever, so not even those stations have remained "immune" to such massive changes in media...

recapping everything that just happened last week (Antigua, St. Kitts, Puerto Rico, etc.)

Well, now I'm back from three (and almost another half) days aboard Celebrity Cruises' Summit ship, along with a day on each of the islands of Antigua (St. John's - not the university, though; the capital of the island of Antigua), St. Kitts (Basseterre, although we never quite made it over to Nevis...), and, lastly, San Juan, Puerto Rico, where we witnessed the mere beginning of the incredibly long road ahead for that U.S. territory...

The ship itself first sailed in 2001, as one of the company's first ships of the new millennium, for a company that has, surprisingly, only been around since the late '80s, and, honestly, the ship still looks the part, despite apparently having been renovated a few short years ago - if nothing else, the company's "green" placards placed inside every (stateroom) bathroom onboard still looked like they were from the late '90s, with white lettering against a teal/turquoise background, although those with views out to the ocean/sea provided quite the views, although those down below a certain point - roughly halfway up the ship, likely still had views, albeit of the ocean itself, instead of seeing any sort of land formations up above the water, although most of the lounges/restaurants aboard the ship had these massive windows with views outside, and, obviously, there were a few top levels open for people to hang out on, which provided incredibly wide views of the ocean/sea!

The other day, down in Antigua, I mentioned the overall "demographics" of the ship, and while, in retrospect, I take back part of what I said about the age groups - there might have been very few other people around my age, but there were some of them, I noticed, although, again, that very well might have been the least represented age group there, with just about everybody, again, being older overall, unless they brought (younger) children along, although even the "toddler" population there might have been bigger than the "teen" population aboard that ship this past week!

That afternoon, I also mentioned how just about everything costs "an arm and a leg", and, turns out, that even includes the supposedly "free" stuff, with 18% added for all size groups to things like drinks in restaurants (specifically of the "alcoholic" variety, although there's a "package" along those lines that the company apparently sneaks onto everybody's eventual bills, to force them to get it off before leaving, or risk getting stuck making said payments) and spa services, along with various levels of Internet access increasing in both length and price anywhere from hourly access, to the entire length of the cruise, with, obviously, the hourly (starting off) costing the least, although adding up little by little, and the length-of-cruise deal putting all those costs together!

As for the "free" stuff, there's a cafe up top, right across from the gym/pool(s) (multiple pools, whirlpools, and a "thalassotherapy" pool in this "greenhouse"-type structure up top!)/spa facilities, and, again, a few restaurants down below, with the cafe switching between breakfast and lunch/dinner every day, before closing at night, with some of the restaurants not requiring, yet still recommending, reservations, while others (French, Italian, Japanese, etc.) were more along the lines of what you would see anywhere on the "mainland" here, with reservations required, and various parts of a sort of "menu" all costing different prices, so it's up to each group/individual, in the end, to determine where to go each day for their "nourishment"!

The crew onboard the ship, on the other hand, couldn't have been friendlier/more "personable" if it tried to do so, as seemingly everybody brought a different personality/stories to the week - some of them were more "comical"; others were more "joyous", and still others were more "personal", being able and willing to discuss some of the "behind-the-scenes" stuff that happens on cruises, along with some of the "hidden fees" the company tries to sneak into peoples' payments, and how even the crew members, of all people, have to pay for things like Internet access, along with how their families have dealt with them being "at sea" for months at a time, in some cases, before returning home for "vacations", and they came from just about every part of the world, with just as many Asians as ("non-hyphenated") Americans, and just as many Europeans as Latinos, as part of the ship's 1,000-person crew!

On the entertainment side of things, having mostly been to sporting events throughout my life, the TVs throughout the ship more than sufficed for keeping up with those things (except for the NHL), specifically the continuation of the NFL season, along with some early NBA action, and the first few games of this year's MLB World Series, although I, personally, didn't even bother with the casino down on one of the lower levels, despite passing through there quite a few times to catch a few comedy acts, along with a few Broadway-esque shows, and a Beatles "cover/tribute" band, along with a few games (mostly Celebrity's take on a few various "game/quiz" shows, along with some more generic trivia things), (other) live music performances, and dance parties - personally, I didn't care much for anything other than the comedy and stage shows, despite at least one of the live music performances being a jazz show, since I've always been one to occasionally pop that particular genre of music on at home to just sort of "unwind", and, overall, the comedy acts were quite "edgy", with the pair of comedians who performed taking shots at just about everybody and everything they could think of, and one of them just so happened to be from Jersey, getting off in St. John's, Antigua, to attend a wedding back here this weekend, and, among others, his favorite "targets" were our "esteemed" current Governor, especially his weight, and especially how he actually gained weight after his infamous lap-band procedure near the beginning of both of his terms as Governor here, along with midgets (quite the contrast from making jokes about Chris Christie, I must admit...), and midget wrestling in particular, along with the "hospitality" industry in general, especially airlines, and how he's always preferred cruise ships over airplanes, simply because cruise ships tend to be more "equal" compared to airplanes, which mostly have "first class", followed by everybody else in "coach"...

The various stage shows, meanwhile, took from just about every genre of music imaginable, across just about every era, although, with the exception of the first of them being about this - I guess you could call it "haunted" hotel, they seemed to have neither much of a story, nor too many "speaking parts", per se - they mostly just consisted of the ship's "cast" of performers working through various songs across about an hour or so each, although they almost effortlessly pulled off not just that stuff, but even a few acrobatic/almost "levitation"-type scenes, with curtains and wires and whatnot, which is much riskier than simply "covering" a few songs from various eras, as all those shows contained... (full disclosure time, I guess: I've only ever seen Broadway's Memphis (the story of the beginnings of "rock n' roll") and Wicked (the "untold" story "behind the scenes" of the story of the Wizard of Oz) before, so, despite seeing just about everything Disney has had to offer up across the decades, I'd say I'm not the most experienced Broadway person, despite having passed through there an untold amount of times so far...)

The Beatles show was interesting, also, with a "quartet", obviously, of Beatles impersonators, and even some, dare I say, rare (nowadays) footage of the actual group making its initial trip to N.Y.C. back in the mid-'60s, along with footage from some of the films the original group starred in way back then, although the screens on which that footage was shown, as you might very well see in the links I'll pass along to you later, were incredibly tiny, although I guess TV screens like those were what people watching those original guys watched them on back then...

The other comedian, last but not least, was born in (rural) LA, moved to the Dallas/Fort Worth, TX, area, later, where he said his parents still live to this very day and then finally moved to the Atlanta, GA, area, where he still lives, again, without his parents, and mostly made jokes about parenting and poverty/wealth, along with marriage/relationships, before asking various groups of people to stand/otherwise make themselves known, like military and law enforcement, before moving on to this somewhat bizarre half comedy/half saxophone segment, when he played a few notes, stopped to tell another joke (mostly puns by then), played a few more notes on the sax, told another (punny) joke, and so on and so forth! (also, both of them called upon people leaving those shows early to explain their reasons for departing early, before proceeding to joke about those little situations anyhow...)

As for the various ports, I'd rank them (even prior to the various hurricanes) (1) St. Kitts/(presumably) Nevis; (2) Puerto Rico; (3) Antigua, since Antigua happens to be an under-developed island to this very day, with roads and sidewalks alike being dangerous to travel along, although, unlike Aruba, that seems to have kept "commercialization" off the island, with only Burger King and a few American (or western hemisphere, I guess) banks populating the downtown area; the rest is just local restaurants and shops, while St. Kitts/Nevis actually have a more "primitive" "highway" system in place, although the same Burger King/western bank "duopoly" exists there, as on the island of Antigua, along with (reportedly) more monkeys than people, and even quite a few cats/cows/dogs/goats/sheep roaming both of those islands, so there was more "wildlife" than people on various parts of that particular island, while the opposite is true throughout the rest of the Caribbean!

Puerto Rico, on the other hand, at least currently, in the weeks following the devastating hurricanes recently, doesn't have any of that, since, although the infrastructure was in place before last month, as we headed from the ship terminal to the airport that morning, there was everything from a Hyatt Place hotel building that looked as if it had suffered no damage whatsoever, to a pair of completely shuttered Burger King locations, quite a few shuttered gas stations, and a few shopping centers that had been cut off from access, along with, obviously, downed power lines and trees, and buildings ripped apart by the rain/wind, although, amazingly, some people still had the audacity to take a tour of what little of the "old" part of San Juan was already open that weekend, which the cruise ship had the audacity to even offer to begin with, considering the situation of the vast majority of the island's residents, although, on a (somewhat) more uplifting note, just about every (digital) billboard that hadn't gotten shut off by the storms displayed messages of "solidarity" with the people from various Puerto Rican "big business" firms, although getting through the airport was a total mess, with some of the signs directing people through the terminal parking lots having been ripped apart by the storms, and people just gathering wherever they felt like doing so in order to reclaim their luggage that had been brought in these tiny vans, although, thankfully, everything inside was back up and running, with air conditioning being of utmost importance, followed by eating establishments and seating areas in the waiting rooms, although the (3G) wireless service inside the airport was just pathetically slow, and the Wi-Fi was non-existent, since it would connect initially, only to then display messages proclaiming it to be "offline", forcing everybody to clog up the already-slow 3G wireless connections, which themselves were likely not back to full capacity, never mind 4G, with electricity, obviously, preceding that in terms of "importance" to the locals there!

http://www.cleancruising.com.au/ship.asp?ship=CELSUM#tab-2

https://www.cruisecritic.com/reviews/review.cfm?ShipID=251

https://cruiseweb.com/cruise-lines/celebrity-cruises/ship-celebrity-summit

https://cruiseline.com/ship/celebrity-summit

(etc.)

In terms of my plans for the upcoming month, though, those include, obviously, a return trip to MSG for (currently) #6 BU v. (unranked, although you could make the case for top 20 or 25 right now) Cornell, the last Saturday of the month, although, before then, I'm looking at various places around here, including Princeton hosting Colgate (not the toothpaste brand) and Cornell back-to-back the first weekend of November (Fri. 3 and Sat. 4), UConn being at home all weekends leading up to Thanksgiving weekend (v. Vermont 3 @ 7/4 @ 3:30; Ohio State 10 @ 7/11 @ 3:30; UMass Lowell 17 @ 7/18 @ 3:30), Army hosting Holy Cross twice the weekend before Thanksgiving (Fri. 17 and Sat. 18), and, even, at the D-III level, Manhattanville College (Rye, NY, playing out of the historic Playland park ice rink in Westchester County) hosting Neumann University (Aston, PA) 11/10, Stevenson University (Owings Mills, MD) 11/11, and King's College (Scranton, PA) 11/18, along with Michigan State v. Minnesota @ MSG (Sat., 1/20, 8 P.M.) being on sale these past few days, so it's not just this next month/the "holiday season" I already have to look forward to; it's also the beginning of next year that I'm suddenly able to look ahead to!

an exposé on a famous (classical) jazz album

Throughout the course of history, most music genres have been seen as more “brash” and/or “overpowering”, not necessarily always allowing people to “think” about what message is being sent by some song(s). Jazz, however, seems to have avoided the “stereotyping” that most other genres have received, due to (generally) not containing many, if any, lyrics, and just letting the music stand on its own. One such album that almost perfectly captures the “thought-provoking”-type sound that most jazz has given us over the years was a 1959 album by trumpeter Miles Davis titled Kind of Blue, which had apparently been in the works for years (behind the scenes) prior to its eventual release to radio stations nationwide. It was recorded with many different contemporary jazz musicians, allowing many different styles to be heard by listeners who perhaps might have been looking for something with some “variety” in some album of that type. Despite its “depression”-type name, the album was almost entirely filled with more “upbeat” instrumental backings, hinting at a relatively easy process for the performers, and an almost “triumphant” lead out of the 1950s, wherein the only major world event was the Korean War, and into the civil rights’ movement of the 1960s, of which Davis would end up being a major proponent, mostly through his music, although also through his activism.

(SIDE NOTE: this happened right before recording started on what would later become Kind of Blue, and sort of “set the tone” for the rest of the civil rights movement, while also simultaneously infuriating the jazz community)

In August 1959, Davis and his world-famous “quintet” (separate from his recording group) were performing for the military inside the Birdland nightclub in midtown Manhattan. As he was leaving the nightclub after the performance, he was reportedly told by a few NYPD officers to “move on” while escorting a blonde woman across the street from the nightclub. After Davis tried to get out of the argument by telling the officer that he was a worker there, the officers chased the woman away from the scene, and arrested Davis for 3^rd-degree assault. As a result of the arrest, Davis was suspended from performances at all N.Y.C. jazz clubs until further notice, and was forced to plea bargain his way out of an N.Y.C. prison to get back to being able to perform in the City once again after those few weeks/months on suspension. Davis soon accused the officers to the Baltimore Afro-American of setting a “double standard”, in so many words, for themselves, and then for everybody else:

“It’s ridiculous to think I grabbed his nightstick. You can’t just take a gun or nightstick away from a policeman. If I had ever taken his nightstick from him, I wouldn’t look like this (points to bandaged forehead).” Davis complained in his autobiography that the aftermath of the arrest and trial/acquittal had “changed my whole life and whole attitude again, made me feel bitter and cynical again when I was starting to feel good about the things that had changed in this country.”, and, for the most part, the African-American and jazz communities agreed that, since the civil rights’ movement was roughly halfway between Rosa Parks’ famous “bus seat refusal” in Montgomery, Alabama, and the desegregation of public schools/Little Rock, Arkansas National Guard intervention/passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, they were in need of a more “upbeat” album/set of tunes to get them through ordeal after ordeal they faced back then.

For most musicians/band members recording an album along the lines of Kind of Blue, such would most likely be considered the most upbeat of their solos/albums. For Davis, however, the opposite appeared to be true: his previous solos/albums were more upbeat than Kind of Blue, owing to their styles in and of themselves, according to saxophonist John Coltrane in a 1958 interview during the production process for the album…:

“On returning… I found Miles in the midst of his musical development. There was one time in his past that he devoted to multi-chorded structures. He was interested in chords for their own sake. But, now, it seemed that he was moving in the opposite direction to the use of fewer and fewer chord changes in his songs…”

…and by Davis himself, in a different 1958 interview with Nat Hentoff, then running his own magazine, The Jazz Review:

“When you’re based on chords, you know at the end of 32 bars that they have run out and there’s nothing to do but repeat what you’ve just done – with variations. I think a movement in jazz is beginning away from the conventional string of chords… There will be fewer chords, but infinite possibilities as to what to do with them. Classical composers – some of them – have been writing this way for years, but jazz musicians seldom have (up until then).”

Davis’ comments signaled that he would continue the style started only about a year earlier, in one of his 1958 singles, “Milestones”, which had more of a “modal” style, instead of the more upbeat tone of “bebop”/”hard bop” of his previous singles/albums, prior to 1958: not quite as “mellow” as “cool jazz”, yet definitely more designed for “outings”, with its overall faster pace than “modal” jazz. “Bebop”, in its time, was routinely described as such things as “memorable”/”planned”/”short” (Michael Cuscuna, jazz producer), and also as an “anagram of blues and gospel” and “vigorously creative” (David H. Rosenthal, in his jazz “exposé”, Hard Bop). On the other hand, Dirk Sutro, in Jazz for Dummies (another installment of the “intro series” to (insert topic here) that has become popular with people learning about topics), described “modal” jazz as (more qualitative traits 1^st, then more quantitative traits):

-       typically CDEFGAB, with “C” starting everything off

-       B♭ appearing less often than those notes

-       C “Ionian” being the dominant note above all others

-       C/F/G/A/D/E all being present on the “pentatonic scale”

-       Slow-moving, yet not quite as slow as “cool jazz”

-       More “harmonic” than any other jazz styles

-       More “melody” than “progression”/”transition”

-       More use of bass pedals, multiple keys being played at once (“polytonality”), and “droning” sounds, where the same note gets extended longer than usual

To that end, the album’s 1^st track, “So What”, started off with every “D” note (known as “Dorian mode”), transitioning to E♭ “Dorian”, and then back to “D” “Dorian” – overall, in the same structure used mostly in rock music, but also, perhaps most famously, in a certain tune from the Wizard of Oz “soundtrack”. Continuing on, “Freddie Freeloader”, featuring the fast-paced piano work of Wynton Kelly, was mostly B♭, and progressed into A♭7 near its end, instead of the more typical B♭7. “All Blues”, the 4^th track, owing to its name, was played in 6/4 time, exclusively featuring 7^th chords, and an E♭7 in a “G” key, with a “vamp” noise reverberating from the bass throughout the tune. Last but not least, “Flamenco Sketches” technically has no melody, yet pianist Bill Evans is usually credited with giving the tune its 4-bar Cmajor7/G9suspended4 form, with “C”, “A♭”, “B♭”, and “G” notes being played throughout the tune. Overall, the album almost perfectly encapsulated what Davis and the rest of his “crew” wanted from the album: a slower pace than any of the performers’ previous works, particularly any of Davis’ works, since he was the almost undisputed leader of the recording group, despite not having his quintet to support him at too many points in the recording process.

            Davis himself noted the significance of Kind of Blue in a 1986 interview with jazz pianist-turned-NPR host Ben Sidran, on his show, “Sidran on Record”:

"’So What" or Kind of Blue, they were done in that era, the right hour, the right day, and it happened. It's over [...]. What I used to play with Bill Evans, all those different modes, and substitute chords, we had the energy then and we liked it. But I have no feel for it anymore—it's more like warmed-over turkey.”

Davis might have dismissed his own work, but others certainly didn’t, as evidenced by the rankings for the album over the years:

-       1977: Billboard Jazz #37

-       1987: Billboard Top Jazz #10

-       1994: Colin Larkin, author of Top 1000 Jazz Albums: #1

-       2001: Billboard Top Internet #14

-       2002: Library of Congress – 1 of 50 “culturally significant” recordings selected for historical preservation that year

-       2003: Rolling Stone “500 Greatest Albums” list - #12

-       12/16/09: U.S. House of Representatives voted unanimously (409-0) to “affirm” the album as a “cultural national treasure”

-       gold in Belgium

-       platinum in Australia/Italy/the U.K.

-       quadruple platinum over here in the U.S.

…why not let an 8/1/01 article from NPR’s “Jazz Profiles” finish this?

“Musicians from all genres perform, record and study the album's songs, and the influence of the songs on culture beyond music continues to grow. Drummer (Jimmy) Cobb says it all comes down to simplicity — the reason Kind of Blue has remained so successful for so long, and because of its inherent balance, historian Dan Morgenstern adds, the album never wears out its welcome.”

Just some belated beginning of 2015 thoughts:

Precisely 1 year ago today, I made this post here:

http://anytandeverything.blogspot.com/2014/01/just-some-belated-beginning-of-2014.html

Well, since another year has now passed, & it's now 2015 instead of 2014, I'd like to do that all over again, except looking back at 2014, & looking ahead to 2015, instead of 2013 & 2014, respectively! 

2014 started all down for me, with my GPA through my very 1st semester of college, the economy due to "correct" itself &, thus, contract by over 2% after "only" growing by 3.5% the previous quarter (to end 2013), & the same old, same old everything in the media at this time last year, there were few reasons for me, at least, to expect much to be different in 2014, but did it ever become different as it progressed - you saw some of what I took notice of throughout the year, from politics:

http://anytandeverything.blogspot.com/2014/02/a-message-from-venezuelan-opposition.html

http://anytandeverything.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-student-movements-message.html

http://anytandeverything.blogspot.com/2014/05/2016-dangers-of-borderline-single-party.html

On a different note, here's a chart from IEEconomics, showing key U.S. economic indicators in my lifetime:

GDP growth rate last quarter: 5%

inflation rate: 1.7%

interest rates: .25%

U3 (people actually unemployed, instead of "underemployed") unemployment rate: 5.8%

Obviously, those figures don't necessarily mean the situation over here is all brilliant, but let me give you people another economic indicator just to further my own belief in this slow, but steady recovery:

AAA averages for gas:

regular: $2.217

mid: $2.442

premium: $2.632

diesel: $3.113

OPEC barrels: $52.69

a year ago:

regular: $3.326

mid: $3.500

premium: $3.673

diesel: $3.876

OPEC barrel forecast for this time next year: $60/barrel; a slight, yet negligible, increase

to sports:

http://anytandeverything.blogspot.com/2014/01/this-was-college-hockey-at-its-most.html

http://anytandeverything.blogspot.com/2014/02/super-bowl-48-winners-losers.html

http://anytandeverything.blogspot.com/2014/08/welcoming-europe-back-to-ice-in-style.html

to scandals:

http://anytandeverything.blogspot.com/2014/03/malaysia-airlines-loses-contact-with.html

http://anytandeverything.blogspot.com/2014/04/on-sterling-gate.html

to this big-screen phenomenon:

http://anytandeverything.blogspot.com/2014/07/a-follow-up-to-end-of-my-last-post.html

http://anytandeverything.blogspot.com/2014/08/how-frozen-could-become-this.html

http://anytandeverything.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-real-life-hotel-de-glace-near.html

to my personal crusades, both international:

http://anytandeverything.blogspot.com/2014/07/japan-july-2014-revisited-my-possible.html

http://anytandeverything.blogspot.com/2014/10/japon-2014-ahora-en-espanol.html

& in print:

http://anytandeverything.blogspot.com/2014/10/chapter-1-reigniting-drug-wars-except.html

http://anytandeverything.blogspot.com/2014/10/chapter-2-planning-infiltration-of.html

http://anytandeverything.blogspot.com/2014/11/chapter-3-smacking-down-la-linea-cartel.html

http://anytandeverything.blogspot.com/2014/11/chapter-4-returning-to-japan-only-to.html

1st off, however, I'd like to recap the New Year's Eve show for this year, since there was an entirely new slate of performers compared to last year, which was mostly 'cause most of the performers featured this New Year's Eve hadn't yet released any of what they performed, or, in some cases, hadn't even been heard from before last New Year's Eve:

The news before the show was that the special will be back through the early 2020s (Hollywood Reporter):

"ABC and Dick Clark Productions have renewed their deal for both the American Music Awards and New Year's Rockin' Eve. 

The duo announced Friday that new nine and ten year deals with keep the AMAs on ABC through 2023 and the Ryan Seacrest's New Years show through 2024. News of both renewals comes after ratings surges for both telecasts in their most recent outings.

Both shows have indeed proven to be successes for ABC. Despite intense competition from Sunday Night Football on NBC, November's 2013 outing of the AMAs hit a 11-year high. Year-to-year, the show jumped 32 percent for a 4.5 rating among adults 18-49 and 39 percent to 13.1 million viewers.

“We are delighted to remain at ABC, the home of many of DCP’s franchise events. Both the AMAs and NYRE continue to exhibit tremendous growth year to year,” said Dick Clark Productions CEO Allen Shapiro. “We enjoy a tremendous relationship with ABC which has resulted in significant ratings growth in both events and trendsetting breakthroughs in our approach,” commented Mike Mahan, president of dick clark productions. “We are happy the relationship between ABC and DCP will continue for many years to come.”

New Year's Rockin' Eve, originally emceed by Dick Clark Productions' late namesake, delivered its largest audience since 2000 with 22.8 million viewers.

Dick Clark Productions and The Hollywood Reporter are both owned by affiliates of Guggenheim Partners."

Instead of recapping the annual special myself this time around, as I had this time last year, since websites of all types recap such events every year, I'll just leave it to Billboard to recap the festivities:

"The biggest names in pop, country and hip hop have rung in the New Year at the traditional Rockin' Eve concerts.

ABC's broadcast bounced around parties in L.A., Miami, Nashville and New York City, where many thousands -- host Ryan Seacrest called it a million -- braved the cold to watch performances from the likes of Taylor Swift, One Direction, Snoop Dogg, Magic! and Florida Georgia Line.

The action didn't stop there. Billboard's Hollywood party hosted some of the hottest artists on the planet. Billboard has picked seven of the night's most memorable moments.

Taylor Swift was right at home on New Year's Eve. The pop superstar has relocated to New York City, and she's settling in just fine. "It's the best," she told Seacrest of her new home. "Honestly, this is the greatest city in the world. I'm so lucky." The locals gave her the warmest of welcomes when she served up "Welcome to New York," the opener from her hit new album 1989. And then came "Shake It Off." Start spreading the news…Taylor Swift is the new Queen of New York City.

UPDATE: Swift's performance was flawless, but post-show, fans captured Swift briefly losing her balance walking off the stage. Naturally, she shook it off."

(I have to take issue with Billboard describing the NYE crowd as being full of "locals" - ever since the Times Square show started back in 1972-73, it's done both of 2 things):

1: It's welcomed over a million people to celebrate each New Year since then, &

2: The show itself has been composed largely - I'd estimate at least 80% - of tourists, not to mention all the performers who have graced Times Square with their presence over the years, & most N.Y.C. residents have generally told relatives & strangers alike to avoid Times Square unless taxiing through those streets to get elsewhere in Manhattan, myself included, so while us "locals" do hold Times Square in somewhat high regard (in other words, only when showing relatives around), we prefer to just pass through it into other Manhattan neighborhoods! Back to the article:

"The pre-NYE rumors of Niall Horan leaving One Direction turned out to be well off the mark. The boyband used the platform of Billboard's Hollywood Party to dispel any notion that five would become four. The lads kicked off the broadcast with a performance of "What Makes You Beautiful," with cheeky-chappy Niall clearly happy on stage with his British buddies. The boys worked as hard as anyone, making return trips to the stage for renditions of "Story Of My Life," "Steal My Girl" and others.

Jenny McCarthy is a stickler for tradition. The co-host of ABC's broadcast kept alive her ritual of a New Year's snog for the cameras. Though on this occasion, she didn't plant one on a random guest in the crowd. The actor and model landed her lips on her husband, Donnie Wahlberg of New Kids on the Block. She also got to deliver one last gag for the year. Whilst outro-ing 1D, she told the cameras "I'm proof that if you stalk a boyband member for long enough, they just might marry you." Before the New Year clocked in, Jenny was trending on Twitter in the U.S."

Idina Menzel couldn't have hoped for a more appropriate setting to perform her big hit from Frozen. The singer looked as though she was singing "Let it Go" from inside of a freezer cabinet. This wasn't a perfect performance. Menzel hit a few bum notes on the stage at Times Square, and she struggled with timing issues. Though she will take with her into the New Year the experience of having a city-sized crowd singing back at her, "the cold never bothered me anyway." Perhaps the cold bothered Menzel a touch."

I would comment on how it's not necessary for 1,000,000+ people to get an impromptu "sing-along" of that going, but apparently, it was necessary for the show's producers to schedule all the performances every year randomly, instead of, you know, having some sort of schedule, since it's not as if everybody will be just flawless on the biggest stage (quite literally) in all of entertainment...

"It's a long way from Mullumbimby to New York City. Just ask Iggy Azalea. The Aussie singer, who in 2014 joined the Beatles as the only acts to rank at Nos. 1 and 2 simultaneously with their first two Hot 100 hits, capped her big breakout year with a stint onstage at Billboard's Hollywood Party. She had announced just prior to the show that she's been diagnosed with TMJ (or temporomandibular joint dysfunction), the medical term for jaw pain or dysfunction. There was no obvious sign of her affliction when she took to the stage to perform "Fancy" with Charli XCX."

TMJ disorder is usually something for old people, not record-breaking (& deceiving, in a good way) rappers, but apparently, we now have a known case of that condition ailing somebody who performs for a living - not that hearing such news will massively disrupt the industry, but I'm sure some people will overreact eventually, & that'll create a new set of pointless issues...

"Elton John's honeymoon period ain't over just yet. The recently-married British pop legend was all-smiles when he played to a packed house at Brooklyn's Barclay's Center for his first New Year's Eve concert. Elton gave the viewers back home a (seated) performance of "I'm Still Standing," a hit from 1983."

I'm glad they mentioned that he's British... Seriously, though, I'm just glad that even people like him can have their (relatively) private lives without fundamentalist doom-&-gloom nuts wanting to burn all of them alive to create this fundamentalist "utopia", or some **** like that!

"Lady Antebellum worked a little "freaking awesome" into their set when they played Nashville with a medley that included a cover of "Thrift Shop"... with the "naughty bit" taken out. The trio is back in the spotlight after the recent release of their fifth album proper, 747."

A country group, covering a rap tune that was a parody of a subset of consumers? At least that happened in Nashville, not in, say, Chicago or wherever else, since I'm not so certain they would appreciate something like that being performed on New Year's Eve... J/K!

On a more personal note, if 2014 was the time in which I finally fulfilled my promise(s) to myself to visit Japan, well, you can look forward to the 2015-20xx timeframe as being the timeframe in which I'm planning on returning there, since that return will undoubtedly be for a longer length of time than my 1st visit there, &, the sooner said return happens, the more chances I'll have, I think, at obtaining all the possible "perks" of having already visited said part of the world, like Temple Japan hopefully acknowledging my 1st trip over there, & being willing to give somebody such as myself who (1) applied to their main campus 1st & foremost, (2) visited the country itself, & (3) improved my GPA just enough, at least so far, with that end goal in mind - I wouldn't want that any other way, to be sure!

I'm not the only person who happens to believe so much in the opportunities that studying abroad open up, since CNN recently found a few more people who agree with me on that front:

"When Ashley Blackmon sat down for her job interview for a marketing position in New York City, she didn't start off by talking about the business classes she had taken in college or her experience working at a financial services company.

Instead, she talked about the five months she spent studying and traveling in Spain.

"When I left the interview, I felt amazing," said Blackmon, 24, who studied at ESEI International Business School in Barcelona the year before she graduated Clark Atlanta University. She landed that marketing analyst job at a large food and beverage company and believes her study-abroad experience was the thing that set her apart. "I learned how to be a better businesswoman, critical thinker and relationship builder in a new culture," she said.

Studying abroad isn't a common experience for most U.S. college students. In fact, only 1% of students manage to study abroad.

Finances, time constraints and safety are some of the challenges U.S. students face when deciding to spend a semester or two overseas. But globetrotting during or after college could give recent graduates an edge in the job market, which continues to be one of the toughest on record for 20-somethings.

The potential benefits are prompting new study-abroad initiatives in the States. Organizations such as the Institute of International Education have launched programs such as Generation Study Abroad in hopes of doubling the number of U.S. students who travel internationally.

An international push from the White House

First lady Michelle Obama is also working on efforts to promote more international travel among Americans. She's in China with her daughters and mother, speaking about the importance of education, youth empowerment and the benefits of studying abroad. The first lady conducted an exclusive interview with CNN iReporters on Saturday, taking their questions on studying abroad.

"The benefits of studying abroad are almost endless," Obama said during the CNN iReport interview. "First of all, it is going to make you more marketable in the United States. More and more companies are realizing that they need people with experience around the world."

Howard Wallack, vice president of global business development at the Society for Human Resource Management, has experience as a hiring manager and was an international exchange student. He says traveling abroad can introduce students to a host of skills.

"Living in another country, you learn to deal with a variety of people," he said. "You learn to listen, be proactive, be patient, assertive. All those are translatable skills."

Wallack's experience working in a rural health clinic in Guatemala after a major earthquake helped him find compassion and resiliency within himself.

"If you just stay in your own country, you have a certain mindset about your own culture. When you step out of that, you challenge your experiences and find out about yourself, which can translate in the workplace," he said.

The problem is students don't always know how to illustrate those experiences on paper. But some colleges are taking steps to teach soon-to-be graduates how to leverage their study abroad adventures for job interviews.

Take the trip, land the job

Heather White is the director of the Career Resource Center at the University of Florida. With an enrollment of 50,000 students annually, she says the key to standing out with your travel experience is to be strategic about how you exhibit it.

"Some students tend to write on their resume, 'study abroad France,' and that is it. We recommend expanding on that experience. Did they volunteer, work, study?" she said.

Jennifer Grasz, a spokesperson for job-posting site CareerBuilder, says to write out what you learned and how it's relevant to your professional performance on your resume.

"For example: Traveling abroad has provided me with a greater knowledge and appreciation of global communities and how to effectively navigate around communication and cultural barriers," she wrote in an e-mail to CNN.

Ashley Putnam, a fellowship director and writer for Idealist, an online resource for finding nonprofit jobs, is a bit more skeptical about the career benefits of studying overseas. "It depends on what they did," she explained. Running a public policy program, she looks for applicants who are realistic about job expectations.

"I find that people who paid to volunteer abroad sort of just take pictures and hold babies," she said. "It depends on your study abroad program, too. Just having studied abroad is good, but there is a whole other aspect to what you did while you were there."

That's exactly what Alexa Basile tried to keep in mind when she selected her study abroad program. The State University of New York at Potsdam student spent a year in Australia teaching social studies to a class of nine students.

It was during that immersion with her students, many of whom had behavioral problems, that she noticed her eighth-grade students were reading at a second-grade level. That inspired her to focus on more critical reading lessons. "And that made me realize I wanted to be a literacy specialist," she said, which she is now emphasizing as she interviews for graduate school.

Like Blackmon, Basile puts her study-abroad experience on her resume, but she also goes in depth about her trip in her cover letter. She's candid with interviewers about her successes and challenges overseas.

"I had times with this class that were really tough, and sometimes frustrating," she said. Her students routinely challenged her instructions, defied her and talked back to her.

"But my very last day, I walked into the classroom and they decorated it for me and they brought me treats and toys," she said. "I broke down immediately. It really proved to me they were tough, but they appreciated me."

Those frustrating and rewarding moments helped hone her classroom management skills. After Basile came back from Australia, she got her second student teaching job at an inner-city school in New York City.

It's exactly that sort of program involvement that Idealist's Putnam says will make hiring managers care about a study abroad trip. "Be self-aware as you are doing your job and take stock in what skills you are building. It's not just 'I go to a class and I teach the class,' " she said. "Be critical of the work that you are doing."

Basile, who is interviewing for graduate schools, says to approach studying abroad with realistic expectations. "To get most out of your travel, you need to go with the mindset that you are going to do a lot of things and be involved," she said.

"Get hands on and look for a program that has those experiences. You can be a tourist on a family vacation.'"

With that in mind:

On to college football:

The 2015 edition of the Rose Bowl, now part of the College Football Playoff semifinals, was practically over before it even started - I mean, who outside of Tallahassee, FL, thought that Florida State could even begin to match Oregon's blazing speed on the ground, & its tendency to burn opponents through the air, once they think they have Oregon's running game under control? Also, I happen to agree with all the commentators claiming that Florida State seemed to have "given up" in the 4th quarter of that game... You don't make it to the (new) national semifinals of the college football season & just give up on a chance at repeat championships, Florida State! You just can't do so & expect to remain respected!

If the 2nd half of the Rose Bowl was a total "snoozer", then the 1st half of the Sugar Bowl that followed didn't do much of anything to remove that designation, considering Alabama went up 21-6 right before halftime, & ended up having another chance at another score to widen that margin even more, before Ohio State showed that, even with 3 injured (&, thus, out of action) QB's, there's always the possibility of some sort of comeback lurking deep within the reaches of both teams in any game, &, botched final possessions by both teams aside, Ohio State ended up dominating the 3rd quarter in particular, en route to that remarkable upset win over the again #1 team in the country, looking to continue its recent run of championship game berths, in which it won all of its titles (2009, 2011, 2012, & being within a single game of reaching said point in 2013, only to have Auburn pull off the upset):

Speaking of college sports, if the past 2 years were any indication of the growth of college hockey rivalries of all types, then the 1/24 installment of RPI-Union in Albany, N.Y., should be even greater than previously, with Union defending the national championship it won in Philly last spring, & RPI going through some internal struggles, having recently 4 players suspended all at once for some mysterious incident...

Defending champions & suspensions aside, the game itself, normally scheduled on the last Saturday in January, will instead be on the 2nd-to-last Saturday this year, for reasons I've yet to figure out...

Last but not least:

Aside from that, my 2015, at least so far, doesn't have anything extraordinary hidden within its 365 days just yet, at least for me, so, keeping with the old saying "live each day as if... (insert "witty" saying of some type here)", I'll hope for the best with Temple Japan, since, after all, I'll still have a bunch more years in the very near future in which to complete that "journey",  & I hope you people get as much done in your 2015 as I'm hoping to get done in my 2015, since we're not necessarily guaranteed any second/minute/hour/day/week/month/year/decade of our lives...