The Internet is (apparently) Not Forever

We’ve been led to believe that the internet is forever, but the recent disappearance of two treasure troves of worthless data have convinced me otherwise.  Diamonds may be forever.  Some say God’s love is forever.  An old photo of you puking your guts out at a party in 1988?  That’s probably forever too, which is exactly what’s prompted parents worldwide to have The Discussion with their college-bound offspring. 

But cool websites that offer hour after hour of procrastination opportunities for those avoiding their responsibilities?  Those are ephemeral fantasies, subject to the whims of corporate stupidity and pimple-faced techno geeks who, rather than postponing sleep into the wee hours by perusing trivial websites, stay up late destroying them, leaving guys like me wondering what the hell to do when insomnia strikes.

In 2007, a brilliant archive of Siskel and Ebert’s movie reviews was made available for cinema lovers.   Although the database didn’t include the early PBS years prior to Disney’s purchase of the show, every review from 1986 to the present was viewable in all its digital glory, searchable by movie title, actor or director.  Also available were special programs on the Oscars, top-ten best movies of the year and worst movies of the year.  What more could a film aficionado desire?

After an illness stole Ebert’s ability to speak, Disney attempted to revive the show, but in 2010 it was cancelled after 24 years of national syndication and a full 35 years after Siskel and Ebert began reviewing movies on PBS.

Bummer, right?  But oh well, at least fans still had access to a great database of movie reviews.

Not so.  Disney/ABC pulled the plug on the database, further corroborating the assumption that corporations are run by numbskulls.  Since the database had already been created, and since no new movies were being added, keeping the website fully functional would have required minimal resources, and I’ll bet that enough movie lovers would have paid a small annual fee to keep the archive not only operational, but profitable.  I know would have.

In the end, The People shall prevail.  In lieu of a corporate-sponsored archive, two movie lovers have started the website siskelandebert.org, whose mission is to grow an on-line collection of complete Siskel and Ebert programs that viewers themselves donate.  The database continues to grow, and unlike the original Disney-sponsored site, this one includes shows that pre-date the nationally syndicated shows that started in 1986.  It’ll probably never be as complete as what was offered on the original archive (as of this writing, 1986 only has 9 episodes), but it’ll at least be a viable option for those of us who like to piss away our lives living in the past. 

Now for the not-so-happy ending to another tragic loss of worthless data.  Fans of prog-rock will likely remember the amazing forgottenyesterdays.com, an extensive tour log of the group Yes, detailing every performance since their inception in the late 60s.  Set lists, transcriptions of what was said between songs, fan reviews and remembrances of the shows, ticket stubs  – it was all there.  So if you wanted to, for example, learn details about the show you attended during Yes’s Relayer tour in 1974, jogging your memory was only a click away.  A more meaningless yet fun-filled hour of perusing a website there has never been.

And perhaps, never will be again.  The site is down, and has been for over a year, apparently due to a virus that rendered the database useless.   There’s no word on when it’ll be back up, if ever.

Note to hackers everywhere: if you must hack, can’t you hack something we can all agree on, like...I don’t know...how about neo Nazi or Al Qaeda websites?  You’d finally get some support for your efforts – applause, even.  But a site dedicated to the best prog-rock group ever?  Come on!

All this just goes to show that nothing in life is as permanent as we’d like to believe, or at least not the stuff worth saving.  Sure, that time you got canned for flipping off your boss (note: this is not a personal anecdote) might haunt you to your grave, but our attempts to record our histories – both personal and societal – are open to destruction.  What’s cool is that very often, they can be built back up again.  Like Aaron Lansky’s  efforts to save and revive a dying language (if you haven’t checked out the book Outwitting History, it’s a great read), sometimes people prevail over incredible odds.

You hear that, Yes fans?

Radio Essay: A Lyrical Education

Think Rock and Roll doesn't educate?  My essay, A Lyrical Education, was broadcast on Milwaukee's NPR affiliate, 89.7 WUWM, on their Lake Effect program.  This one includes snippets of Steely Dan, The Police, Supertramp and Rush.

Musical Cliches - guilty as charged

Two summers ago, I posted twoblogs on musical cliches and highlighted one in particular: the descending major scale in the bass line, used by virtually every rock band since the early 60s, me included.  It's an oldie but goodie, but there are plenty of other cliches out there, and when someone as unmuiscal as my wife notices one, it might be time for an artist to change his tune.

Last week, after a year of work, I finally completed my new album Warts and All, and while we were in the car listening to the beginning of track four, "There is no Reason"my wife turned to me and said, "Wow, you sure like that theme."

What she was referring to, and what I'd hoped noone had actually noticed, was a recurring theme I've used in multiple songs, whereby I play an octave in my right hand along with a minor or major third below the upper note, and then generally ascend up the scale for a bit and back down again.  For whatever reason, this phrase appeals to me, and I've used it in no fewer than four songs to date.  Give a listen...

Those were snippets from four songs: "Car Alarms" from 1996, "File It Away" from 2000, "What You've Done" from 2003 and "There Is No Reason" from 2012.  An oldie but goodie, indeed.  I also have an unfinished tune that I'm intending my daughter to sing that employs the same tecnnique.  But how that my wife has discovered my secret: that I have very few tricks up my sleeve and that I need to "lean on old familiar ways" (if you guess where that lyric comes from, you win a free copy of my new album), then maybe it's time to put that particular theme away for a while.

But the biggest cliche ever?  Check out the Axis of Awesome performing forty songs with the exact same chord progression:

That chord progression has GOT to be on my next album.

College Costs, part 2 - reasons for hope

Last week I wrote about college costs being a game changer and how the liberties taken a generation ago are no longer viable options: things like picking an unmarketable degree, graduating in five years instead of four, and applying to one school – sight unseen – and not worrying too much about it.  The risks of graduating with a huge amount of debt in a field with high unemployment are simply too great for most families to ignore the nuances of the college application process.

Fortunately, there are some tools and alternative approaches that can help ease the burden of college costs.

First and foremost is the advent of the net price calculator, which all secondary education institutions were required to offer on their websites as of last October (Libertarians may disagree, but there are instances when the Federal Government does some good, and The Higher Education Opportunity Act was overwhelmingly supported in Congress and signed into law by George W).

Net price calculators (NPCs) are a huge development because they shift power from the seller to the buyer.  Before, it was difficult, if not impossible, to get a good sense of what a university actually cost, because the buyer would be comparing retail – or sticker prices – instead of the actual likely cost.  Factors like salary, assets, savings, geography and family details weren’t taken into consideration until families were already knee-keep in the application process, putting them at a distinct disadvantage.

With the help of NPCs, you can learn very early on which schools are off the table and which schools can be legitimately pursued for your family’s situation, and the results might surprise you.  At my children’s high school, Frank Palmasani recently offered an example of a slightly above average student living in Illinois with parents earning a relatively modest income.

After running the numbers through an NPC at http://www.collegecountdown.com/store/financial-fit-video-library.html, which of the following schools do you think had the highest and lowest net price?

• University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana
• Northern Illinois University
• Purdue University
• University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse
• Duke University
• Marquette University
• North Park university

Any thoughts?  The answers will appear in a moment.

The great thing about utilizing NPCs is it keeps in play colleges that you might have disregarded, and it takes out of play colleges that you might have been considering.  NPCs give you and your child the power to focus your search on realistic schools, thereby preventing the scenario of having your child’s sights set on a particular school, only to discover late in the game that it’s way too costly (by which point the parent might give in and start accumulating serious debt).

The answer to the above for this particular family?  Purdue was the most costly at about $32k.  Duke (assuming the child could get into Duke) was the least costly at about $11k.  A surprise?  It was for me. NPCs are good places to start.

What if you have a high achieving student but don’t have a ton of money?  As the above example illustrates, many schools have now adopted need-based financial aid initiatives, which make attending Ivy League schools cheaper sometimes than in-state colleges.  At Harvard, in 2012, families making less than $60,000 have no expected parental contributions, and those with incomes up to $150k are expected to contribute only up to 10%.

Not too shabby.

Of course, not everyone can get into Harvard, so here are some other things to consider:

1)      Just because Lilly wants to attend Tulane in the worst way doesn’t mean that she should.  It’s important early on to communicate to children that they will attend as good a school as they can get into that works within the financial limitations of the family.  In a country where kids are often coddled, we need to draw the line at putting our futures (and our children’s futures) as risk by accumulating too much debt.  Adults don’t always get what they want.  Why should our kids?

2)      Consider this: according to a study done by Stacy Dale, it’s the level of school a student is accepted to, and not where the student ends up going, that best determines future financial success.  Isn’t that a fantastic, liberating discovery?  It follows the old adage: you get what you put into it.  The type of person who will succeed in life will likely succeed regardless of where that student attends school.

3)      I’ve spoken with two parents now whose children are attending a local community college for about $7000 a year with the thought of transferring to a four-year school after a year or two.  A hard sell, no doubt, for some students, but a good decision if your child has no clue what she wants to major in, or if your child didn’t perform very well in high school and now needs a second chance to prove to himself (and you) what he’s capable of.

4)      Some colleges are now offering 3-year programs, a fast-track degree program for those students who are dedicated and know precisely what they want to major in.  This is a natural result of crazy college expenses, and one I find a little disturbing, but it might be a good plan for certain students.

Of course, forgotten in all this sometimes is the idea that we should be raising considerate, caring, hard-working, life-loving kids.  Whatever you do, try to communicate that where a person goes to college is not the be-all end-all decision some make it out to be.   There are so many other things to worry about than college.  Let this be a fun, enlightening process.  Despite the financial implications, I’m really looking forward to sharing this process with my children.

College Costs: the Game-Changer

College campus tours.  Early action and early decision admissions.  Net price calculators.  Online-applications.  Annual costs exceeding annual salaries for many American families.  Graduates with mortgages, minus the home.

I haven’t even dipped my toe in the cesspool of the college admissions process for my children, but already I anticipate drowning in it.  In two years time, I suspect that managing my twin daughters’ college application process will drive me to the brink of insanity.

But talking to friends who are currently knee-deep in deferments, financial aid applications, scholarship and grants is interesting to me.  From a distance, it’s all very fascinating.  There’s a rhythm associated with the college application process that’s oddly compelling, akin to understanding the tax code in hopes of maximizing your return.  There’s terminology to learn, rules to understand, and advantages to be gained, as if there’s a hidden code that can be cracked to set you on the road to success.

In fact, I love to talk about the current college process, as long as it’s with people whose kids aren’t mine.  When I consider my own children, the process begins to sound stressful, overwhelming and ridiculous.

In the fall of 1985, when I applied to a grand total of one university, none of the current complexities were on anyone’s radar.  Not only had I never toured the University of Wisconsin, but my entire experience at UW was a football game during which I focused on the cheerleaders and a two-week camp that confined me to a sliver of the campus.  Neither my parents nor I ever entertained the idea of touring universities.  No one even suggested it.  My parents didn’t nag me about what I wanted to be in life or where I wanted to study.  And costs weren’t much of a concern.  Even working for the minimum wage of $3.35 an hour, I could easily save enough money during the summer to pay for at least a semester of tuition at UW.

My oh my, how times have changed.  And costs.  College costs are a game-changer.  No longer can people afford to have little Johnny attend a school he’s never visited to earn a degree he’s never heard of before.  Now kids have to grow up and grow up fast.  Don’t know what you want to be when you grow up?  Start looking.  Study the projections, or you might just wind up in the field with the highest unemployment of recent college graduates (do you know what it is?  Read on.).

The idea of attending a university to learn how to learn, to study the classics, to understand the world around you – that’s a hard sell when the prospect of graduating with over a hundred thousand dollars in debt looms over you like a death eater at Azkaban.

Several years ago I had a drink with a guy who said that when his children go to college, they’re going to have to show him the job statistics that support their preferred major.  I found this idea absurd.  “What if your child wants to become an archeologist?” I said.  “Show me the numbers,” he countered.  “If you can’t get a job in that field, then you have to change majors.”

I walked away thinking this was one narrow-minded guy.   And yet...

In the last decade, how many fathers watched their sons and daughters do what they wanted to do in college only to become one of the ever growing number of unemployed architects?  Yes, that’s right.  A major in architecture, according to a study quoted in TIME Magazine, has the highest unemployment of recent college graduates.

So now my drinking companion seems like a genius, years ahead of his time.

Of course, predicting the job market is messy at best, and you never know if your kid could be one of the few to obtain a foothold in the profession of his or her choice.  And while I’m certainly not advocating pushing children to major in something they have no interest in, I am advocating sharing with your children the realities that to them are no more tangible than their mortality.

Consider asking your son or daughter the following question: “How much debt do you suppose you can graduate with and still manage okay?”  It’s a good question.  Let’s say your child says something like $50k, not an unreasonable amount.  Okay. 

But your child has no concept of what $50k is.  None.  Do you?  What is fifty thousand dollars? 

Fifty thousand dollars is a $580 dollar per month payment for the next ten years at 7 percent.  And you still don’t have a building to live in, a car to drive, a place to park, food to eat, electricity, water, cable, internet, heat or anything else.  Furthermore, student loan debt is the one debt that can’t be discharged through bankruptcy.  And one day you’ll find someone to marry, and in all likelihood, he or she will also have loans of $580 a month, maybe more.  What if you marry a doctor, or worse – a doctor of philosophy who’s racked up $120,000 in debt ($1400 per month) and who’s selling extended warranties at Best Buy?

Sounds crazy, but read October 17, 2011’s issue of TIME Magazine, and you’ll learn that these numbers are not at all far-fetched.  There are graduates right now who, like the country they live in, are never going to be out of debt.  Ever.

Things look pretty bleak, and they're not necessarily going to get better, but there a few things parents and students can do to make life a little less painful.  I’ll discuss this next week.