Was 1967 the most influential year in music ever?

There aren't many things that are as good today as they were 45 years ago, but much of the rock music produced in 1967 still resonates in ways most people could never imagine. 

Just check out this list of heavyweight music released that year: "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," "Love's "Forever Changes," "The Velvet Underground and Nico," "The Doors," Jimi Hendrix's"Are You Experienced," Cream's "Disraeli Gears," "The Who Sell Out" (my favorite album of theirs), Aretha Franklin's "Respect," Otis Redding's Monterey Pop performance, The Rolling Stones' "Satanic Majesty's Request," Buffalo Springfield, Janis Joplin, The Four Tops' "Reach Out, I'll Be There," Pink Floyd's debut and on and on. 

"Sound Opinions" tackled that historic year in a recent two-episode special examining the impact of such hugely influential music the star-studded Monterey Pop Festival. Both episodes are well worth the listen, if only to remind us that there's classic rock and there's CLASSIC ROCK.

Episode one is here and episode two is here.

One crazy ride down the mountain

This video is amazing, and shows the ingenuitely people have in trying to stretch seasonal businesses in new ways. 

So, when an Austrian ski resort is short of snow, what to do? Why not build a high-speed, 3-mile single-rail rollercoaster in which nutty people sit on the equivalent of a bicycle seat and careen down a steep mountain? Makes sense to me. 

And having been to Mammoth and other Northern California ski resorts in summer and tasting more than my fair share of dust while mountain biking down the mountain, I'm issuing a callout: Build one of these puppies and I'll be one of your first customers. Hell, I'll even be a beta tester. 

Dog TV? For reals?

A new digital TV channel promises to deliver programming for -- get this -- "stay-at-home dogs." 

Dog TV promises programming like the video above, simulating what a dog might see from a moving car. There'll also be video of dogs playing or "relaxation" programming such as a faraway boat moving across a tranquil lake. A Marketwatch podcast even mentioned dogs like watching "SpongeBob Squarepants."

Here's how DogTV describes its vision:

"DOGTV's subscription-based channel organizes programing into 3 to 6 minutes of relaxing, stimulating and behavior-improving segments that work collaboratively to provide just the right balance for the daily routines of our beloved “stay-at-home” dogs."

Dog TV is a fee-based service, at $5 per month. Marketwatch reports there won't be any commercials, although I can see some crazy marketing trying to figure something out.

Update on Sunday, February 19, 2012 at 3:19 PM by Logan Molen

The smart folks at Newsy saw my post and pointed me to their own much more informative take on Dog TV, which I'm sharing here.