linusvanpelt

I have come down to the realization the "Greatest Hits" (or "Best Of") compilations are not really such a good thing. Firstly, they seem to be designed only for monetary purpose (I know, duh, right?). That is not the big problem I suppose. But what I hate is when they add like, one or two songs to a Greatest Hits album so completists have to buy the damn thing. So, if you're an REM fan (like me) you end up buying an album that has 99% of stuff you already have (like my least favorite song "Losing My Religion") to get the few gems (most of which are not all that wonderful). I would hazard a guess that if you look at the average "Best Of" album, the "new songs" (which are usually not new, by the way) are among the weakest in the artist's song catalog.

The other main issue is that "Greatest Hits" albums make you miss a lot of (generally speaking) great songs. If you buy, say The Beatles "1" album, sure you'll get "Love Me Do" and all that, but you won't get much better (albeit lesser known) songs like "Martha My Dear" or "She Said She Said". A lot of great music is the "off" tracks on a record.

I don't know what spurred on the above (semi)rant. Must be the caffeine coursing through.

I saw Artie Lange (Howard Stern's "sidekick" as he is always referred to) perform in Atlantic City last night. Howard Stern was there. It was pretty cool to see him (somewhat) up close, if not personal.

I also ate some fish last night. I think I am going to eat fish once a week going forward and keep veggie the other six days of the week. Maybe forever. We'll see.