Righteous Gemstones

Any of you bastards watching this?  I’m through most of S1, and much of it is hilarious.  Bogs down a little in a couple of middle episodes involving flashbacks and a ho-hum subplot, but it picks up again and looks like it’s  heading for a strong finish.  I’m hearing S2 is good.

Come To Butthead

First half of season 4 coming January 21st. All episodes, you may ask? I don’t know, I might very well answer.

Rick Nielsen’s Guitar Collection

Here’s something to pass the time while you wait on those COVID test results.

When it comes to guitar collections, some are so large, so special, and so rare, that even the best collectors can’t help but do a double-take. This is how you would define Rick Nielsen’s collection – a total head-turner.

In the latest episode of “The Collection,” host Mark Agnesi heads to Rockford, IL, to visit the godfather of guitar hoarding. Rick Nielsen, the lead guitarist for Cheap Trick, takes us through his cavern of guitars. Ranging from quirky and strange to the ultimate rare and last of its kind. And in a “The Collection” first, Rick shows off three original 1958 Explorers out of only nineteen in existence.

While Rick’s guitar bevy is superior to most, what’s striking is his irreverence for ‘value’ in a world full of collectors and purists. In Rick’s eyes, the guitar belongs to him, and how pristine the guitar is doesn’t really matter. His passion for guitars and the guitar world is apparent as he is still adding to the vault. Follow along as Rick takes us through his fantastic collection.

This One’s For You, Fat Elvis

Happy Friday! Dig! says …

The uplifting 89-minute documentary was directed by award-winning filmmaker Mary Wharton (Jimmy Carter: Rock and Roll President, Sam Cooke: Legend, Elvis Lives!, The Beatles Revolution) and first debuted in March as an Official SXSW 2021 Selection, winning the festival’s Audience Award. The film went on to win Best Documentary Film at the Boulder Film Festival and received widespread critical acclaim throughout the film festival season. The picture digs deeper into 2020’s critically acclaimed certified gold reissue, Wildflowers & All The Rest (Warner Records) which revealed the long anticipated second half of Tom’s autobiographical masterpiece. The film illuminates an artist at the height of his powers, providing an intimate and emotional look at an enigmatic icon with archival footage of Petty and his band in the recording studio, behind-the-scenes on tour, and at home with his family, providing a view of Tom Petty as he has never been seen before.

Word

A recent letter to the WSJ in response to a Theranos story:

I am a former biotech analyst. Several years ago, the chairman of a client company told me he had seen an interview with Elizabeth Holmes and thought she was terrific and his company would be interested in working with her. He wanted to know what I thought.

Here is what I did: I went to the Theranos website and looked at the management and board of directors. I immediately noticed two red flags: First, the lack of relevant experience in the CEO’s bio, and second, the board appeared to be decorated with famous names unrelated to Theranos’s business.

Next, I called the company and introduced myself to the person who answered the phone. I explained the reason for my call and that I would like to speak to Ms. Holmes or leave her a message. I was told that there was no mechanism by which I could do that or anyone else with whom I could speak. Red flag No. 3.

It took me 10 minutes and cost my client zero dollars. Any life-sciences analyst would have done exactly the same thing and undoubtedly reached a similar conclusion. No rocket science here. So pardon my skepticism at senior members of corporations testifying as to how much money they spent on due diligence. Perhaps it’s time for their shareholders to make a change.

Elizabeth Silverman

Prism Biomedical Research

New York