All New ZZ Top - Review - Live Greatest Hits from Around the World

ZZ Top Tonite at Midnight: Live Greatest Hits from Around the World

Somewhere, sometime, someone came up with the idea of a greatest hits compilation that would feature of course their biggest hits from all of the best venues they've performed in from several of their more recent tours all over the world. Sounds great, right? Sure.

It sounds appealing, and seemed to be a great idea, until you hear the resulting final cuts. What seems like something different of an approach for a live album, ends up being a total mistake. The tracks all sound like they are from different venues, and the difference in the acoustics and the vocal presentation highlights a lack of continuity that listeners will expect. The mixing of the tracks could not help hide this fact and this is what is most noticeable.

What you have here is what seemed like a good idea, turn out to be a bad idea. The performances are all clearly from different places, and it doesn't matter where these tracks were recorded, the simple fact is that there is no continuity and this does not make this easy or enjoyable to listen to.

This is unpolished ZZ Top with no overdubbing studio tricks. The performances of these big hit tracks also lack the fire you'd expect. You would think they had better stuff in the can, and you'd think they would have nixed the project altogether after listening to the final results. The only thing interesting here is the two tracks that have Jeff Beck.

Fans have a right to expect better from ZZ TOP.

This sad effort from a really great band was released on September 9, 2016. It debuted on Billboard's top 200 at 111 a week later and after another week it disappeared.

Rate this 1-Star on the strength of the Jeff Beck tracks included

You can listen to this album here

Tonite at Midnight: Live Greatest Hits from Around the World

1. Got Me Under Pressure – (Live From New York)
2. Beer Drinkers & Hell Raisers – (Live From Las Vegas)
3. Cheap Sunglasses – (Live From Paris)
4. Waitin’ for the Bus – (Live From Nashville)
5. Jesus Just Left Chicago – (Live From Nashville)
6. Legs – (Live From Sao Paolo)
7. Sharp Dressed Man – (Live From Los Angeles)
8. Rough Boy – featuring Jeff Beck – (Live From London)
9. Pincushion – (Live From Berlin)
10. La Grange – (Live From Dallas)
11. I’m Bad, I’m Nationwide – (Live From Vancouver)
12. Tube Snake Boogie – (Live From Rome)
13. Gimme All Your Lovin’ - (Live From Houston)
14. Tush – (Live From Chicago)
15. Sixteen Tons – featuring Jeff Beck – (Live From London)

Be sure to keep up with the guys by checking out their website from time to time.

http://www.zztop.com/

Football Is Coming To China

The Chinese Arena Football League, kicks off Saturday, October 1st at the beginning of their National Holiday, in the nation’s first professional gridiron league in Beijing.

The new league consists of six teams from Beijing, Dalian, Guangzhou, Qingdao, Shanghai, and Shenzhen. Each team consists of 20 players, half Chinese and half American.

Arena football is high-scoring, and high-action there’s an enormous amount of curiosity among prospective fans...the onlookers wondering what the new football is all about.

China has for the most part been spectators and not the participants. Team sports have never been a priority in China. The Chinese government hopes to change this. Sports in general are becoming more important and more entertaining in China, China’s government has promised to make the sports industry a key economic driver, projecting over 500% growth by eliminating regulations that previously held back the sports industry. This should encourage private investors to build their own facilities, and create their own teams. With all of the related products and services, there is tremendous potential here.

China has a profound passion for basketball and soccer, and American football is only a curiosity at this point. American style football will require a serious commitment to develop a fan base.

The government has finally realized that organized sports are another way to nurture leadership and social skills among young Chinese, and not really a cultural threat. The Chinese government sees American Football as another way to turn Chinese boys into men.

I believe that the Arena style of Football can flourish in China, but the NFL style has no chance. The facilities and space that NFL style football would require is what the Chinese would not sacrifice for merely sporting activities/events.

At present there are an estimated 75 amateur teams that are developing more than 3,000 players.

The new Chinese League CAFL, or Chinese Arena Football League is not at this time affiliated with the American Football League of China.

http://caflfootball.com/

http://aflcfootball.com/

A more thorough, detailed report can be found with the link below. Check it out.

Source: http://time.com/4512741/nfl-cafl-american-football-china-arena-football-sports-peyton-manning/?xid=gonewsedit&google_editors_picks=true

Here's wishing them all success

Cheers!

Roku - Free Channels List & More

Here is a sampling of Free Channels, from the Roku Channel Store. To date, there are more than three thousand free, and pay channels available. Far too many to list, this post highlights the many categories available with Roku, and offers a small sample of these.

What more and more people are doing these days is going with streaming services and ditching cable. These folks are affectionately referred to as cord cutters and are among the masses of people who are fed up with the price gouging of their cable providers.

Here are the categories to choose from: All - Featured - New - Most Watched - APPS - Comedy - Educational - Fitness - Food - Games - International - Kids & Family - Lifestyle - Movies & TV - Music - News& Weather - Personal Media - Photo Apps - Religious - Sci & Technology - Screensavers - Shopping - Special Interest - Sports - Themes - Travel - Web Video

You can search within these categories and find channels for just about everything. Roku is always adding channels and there are numerous other private channels.

So, you're probably wondering if this is worth ditching cable, all I can say is that it's worth giving a try. Roku is only one streaming device service. There is also Chromecast, and others.

In fact, there is now a major push to provide packages of channels via the internet. I think we are all really at the beginning of something new.

Free Popular Channels:

• YouTube
• 
  GoPro
• Twitch
• Red Bull TV
• Weather Nation
• Lynda.com
• Vimeo

Free Channels for Movies & TV Shows:

• Pluto TV
• TubiTV
• CW Seed
• PBS
• Popcornflix
• Crackle

Free News Channels:

• NewsON
• CBS News
• ABC News
• Sky News

Free Channels for kids:

• PBS Kids
• Hasbro
• Jim Henson Family TV
• HooplaKidz
• Popcornflix Kids
• Little Pim Language Learning for Kids
• HappyKids

Free Channels for Music:

• VEVO
• Pandora
• iHeartRadio
• TuneIn

*FYI – The average Pay TV bill is now over $100 a month, that's just the average. Many people are paying for extra channels and are also getting charged monthly rental fees for their equipment and some of these people are paying upwards in the area of $200 a month. Ouch!!

Below is a very useful link to breaking the bad...habit of Pay TV.

       http://cordcutting.com/

Let me know what your favorite free channels are in the comments below.

Cheers!

Android Apps Now On Your Chromebook

Yay! If you want to use Android apps on your Chromebook, now you can. All you'll have to do is this, go to About Chrome OS in the Settings pane, then click More info, and Change the Channel. Choose the developer channel - the least stable.

After changing the channel your system will cycle through a process of updating your system, and then prompt you to click restart.

After a restart, you’ll be ready to go. A new Play Store icon will appear in your app launcher.

That's all there is to it.

Most Android apps launch in a phone screen-sized window. You can maximize the window although, some app's may not respond to this well, and might become unstable. Some can easily switch to tablet mode, while some apps have an extra menu button that lets you manually switch between Portrait and Landscape modes, it varies depending on the app.

The reality here is many apps may not work at all, some will have terrible display, and some may say your device isn't compatible with this version etc.

Lets face it, many app's are designed for mobile and were not intended to be used on laptop like screens. Many app's rely entirely on touch screens, and as we all know, most Chromebooks do not feature these touch screens.

Keep in mind, this is all new and developers will now have to accommodate chrome as a new system as they develop and update their app's.

Google says that their PlayStore Apps will all be compatible with newer Chromebooks with touch screens.

*After doing this, you can go back and change the channel again, back to stable, and the PlayStore Icon button will still be available to you. This way you can select apps that will work. This is a better option for those with older Chromebooks.

Good Luck!

Hoopla Digital Streaming App - Review

Hoopla is a digital media streaming service with an extensive catalog of Audio-Books, Movies, Music Albums, Comics, e-Books, and TV shows. Their service offers multiple different forms of media all in one web-site.

Hoopla can best be considered as an additional digital media service that libraries offer to their patrons, in addition to whatever digital media services libraries provide themselves.

The big upside here is that there are no commercials or advertisements, the library pays to subscribe. The only downside here is that the library’s patrons get limited access, from 4-15 for free.

Ask your local library if they are affiliated, if so, then you can create a free Hoopla account with your library card.

After creating a Hoopla account with a supported library card, you'll have access to check out a number of titles per month, from 4 to 15, depending on your library’s subscription.

Then you can check out Movies and TV for 72 hours, Music Albums for a week, e-Books, Comics, and Audio-books for three weeks. Their availability automatically expires after their designated time allotment as per the specific media.

“Hoopla is a great way to check out digital media before buying it.”

The publisher of the media gets paid each time a patron checks it out, and only when a patron checks it out, so libraries don’t have to take the risk of paying for a title that their patrons may not actually want. The media can be checked out and played or read either through a web browser, or with Android, and iOS apps.

Even if your library is not affiliated with Hoopla, you can still create a free account.

The overall here is, Hoopla is a fantastic service where you can enjoy digital content ad-free, and that alone makes this a worthwhile app to add to your favorites.

Justin Bieber Awarded 8 Guinness World Records

Justin Bieber Scores Big w/ 8 Guinness World Records.

OMG-WTH-WTF etc...Do you feel like Ozzy, and are scratching your head wondering what's a Bieber? If so, you're not alone.

His 85 million and counting twitter following, along with his 10 billion plus streams on YouTube, and having 17 songs simultaneously on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, are maybe his most impressive achievements.

This 22-year-old digital millennium pop star sets eight world records. His trail blazing success is due largely to the strength of his chart topping fourth studio album “Purpose.”

Listed below are the eight new world records set.

1. Most streamed track on Spotify in one week
2. Most streamed album on Spotify in one week
3. Most simultaneous tracks on the US singles chart
4. Most simultaneous new entries in the Hot 100 by a solo artist
5. First act to occupy all top 3 positions simultaneously on UK singles chart
6. Most followers on twitter (male)
7. Most viewed music channel on YouTube (individual)
8. Most subscribers on YouTube for a musician (male)

Whether or not his blend of pop music is your cup of tea, does not matter, his success makes him an undeniable phenomenon.

His success is an example of stardom in a new era. Records today are just for today...eventually someone new will come along and break them, raising the bar, setting new records.

Are you a Belieber or are you a non-Belieber?