As a rock ‘n’ roll fan, I’ve always loved the guitar. Bone-crunching riffs and ear-searing solos are what drew me to the music in the first place. As my passion for music grew, so did my appreciation of those who played the instrument. Remember, this is a list of my favorites, not necessarily who I believe to be the greatest. Who are your favorite axe-men (or women)? Here are mine in no particular order:

1. Jimmy Page

 My musical fervor was fueled first and most effectively by my discovery of Led Zeppelin. Page took rock music in so many directions. Early on he was regarded as a blues guitarist during his days with the Yardbirds, then pigeon-holed as a heavy metal guitarist after Zeppelin took full flight. But if you listen to his body of work he runs the gamut from folk to country, and covers styles from around the world. His complex guitar orchestrations were nearly impossible to replicate live, since the Zeppelin recordings typically had layer upon layer of guitar work on them, yet Page attacked live performances like a mad man. Some have criticized him for being sloppy, but he would take chances live — and in the studio for that matter — that just about no other guitarist would dream of. Both live and recorded, I love to hear him play even to this day. Such fast solos, and the riffs … my GOD, the riffs.

2. Mike Campbell

 Generally overlooked by everyone but Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers fans, Campbell has been the guitar voice for Petty for more than three decades now. Not the fastest fretman out there, but he’s about as tasteful a guitarist as you’ll ever find. Both in the studio and live his solos are always clean and soulful — capturing the precise feel of the song – and he’s got that unique tremolo style. Even when he plays on other artists records, from Johnny Cash to Don Henley, his guitar sound is unmistakable.

3. Eric Clapton

 I’ve never seen a guitarist who makes it look easier than Slow Hand. Listen to his early work with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, particularly the live tracks, and it is easy to hear why graffiti everywhere around London in the mid-1960s proclaimed “Clapton is God.” In the middle portion of his career, he went to great lengths to shun the guitar hero label. This disappointed many fans, who feel he simply got lazy. While he’s never been the risk-taker that Page or Jimi Hendrix were, the solos roll from his Fenders with an effortless grace that blows me away.

4. Stevie Ray Vaughn

 If I could just sit and watch one guitarist play all day, it would probably be the late, great SRV. Some have criticized him for being derivative, and for not having enough original material, but man could he play the six string. Eric Clapton once described him as “an open channel.” Fiery, passionate solos just poured from him. His showmanship reminded me of Buddy Guy, while his playing is almost like Clapton on crank.

5. Randy Rhoads.

 Another of the greats taken from us too soon. I grew up a metal head, cutting my teeth on “Blizzard of Ozz”. A classically trained guitarist, Rhoads added a touch of class to metal. But don’t think for a minute that he didn’t shred. He not only inspired countless metal guitarists, but he resurrected the career of  the godfather of metal, Ozzy Osbourne.

Since I came to the Noblesville Daily Times nearly two years ago, I’ve let it be known how important readers’ contributions are to what we do.

As I’ve stated many times in public and in my weekly column, we need readers to be an active participant in order for us to practice true community journalism. Your contributions come in all forms, from feedback, to news tips, to contributed content. Now we’ve taken it to the next level.

In the Saturday, Feb. 23 edition, we officially launched Hamilton County Today.com. This new reverse publishing product replaces what had been Hamilton County Weekly, serving as the “B Section” of the Saturday paper.

Let me back up a little. Reverse publishing is a term we in the newspaper business use to describe content we’ve taken from our digital products and published in our printed products. In this case, the content printed in the Hamilton County Today.com section in the Daily Times is content that has appeared on our social networking Web site, Hamilton County Today.com.

Much of this content is the same type of stuff we’d always published in Hamilton County Weekly – birth, wedding and engagement announcements, scout and military news and other items you’ve submitted about your family and friends. A few months ago, we opened such submissions up to accept nearly anything you wanted to contribute, from cartoons to poetry. We ran that stuff in Hamilton County Weekly in a feature called “By You.” Now its home is Hamilton County Today.com.

It is easier than ever before for you to participate in your community newspaper. By joining Hamilton County Today.com, you can participate in online forums, join discussion groups and submit your own content – be it photos, videos, blogs or anything you’d like to share with our online community. It’s like a local version of MySpace or FaceBook.

Some of that content will then be reversed published in the print version of Hamilton County Today.com. That product not only comes with the Saturday edition of the Noblesville Daily Times, but is distributed to homes in our market that don’t subscribe to the daily paper.

Hamilton County Today.com in both the digital and print format is a way to not only share good news about loved ones or neighbors, but to get the word out about upcoming events, or share an opinion. It is news for you, by you.

You can contribute far beyond just joining and posting to Hamilton County Today.com, however. Our news site, noblesvilledailytimes.com, now allows you to submit press releases and other news items on our community bulletin board “Post it Here.” Your news item goes right up on the site without having to wait for the next edition of the print product to be published and delivered to readers’ doors.

Our news Web site has long been a place for you to get the word out about an upcoming event – with our online community calendar – or let your opinion be heard – through our weekly Web poll and by submitting letters to the editor online. We even let you offer your suggestions for improving our products with an online suggestion box.

Just as the Noblesville Daily Times is your newspaper, our digital products are there for you to use, to improve and participate. Go online and make the news at noblesvilledailytimes.com or have fun at Hamilton County Today.com.

With all of these options, I hope you see that we are no longer simply a newspaper company. While our printed product is still a major part of what we do, we offer much more. As the years progress, I hope you’ll begin to look at us much more as a local information and connection utility.

Of all the five favorites lists I could make, I think my list of favorite movies is probably one that evolves and changes most often. If I made this list next year, or even next month, it would probably look quite a bit different. But at this moment in time, here are my five favorite movies in no particular order. What are yours?

1. “Rocky” (1976)

This is probably my favorite movie of all time, and would be on this list regardless of when I made it. I’ve always related to the story line of a loser who comes from nothing to make something of himself simply because he refuses to give up. While the sequels increasingly became big-budget action movies, the original was a true character-driven film with so much heart. Like the Rocky character himself, Sylvester Stallone’s screen play came from out of no where to shock the world, winning the 1976 Oscar for best picture.

2. “Coming to America” (1988)

This movie is so funny somebody ought to put it on a plate and sop it up with a biscuit. So many great lines. So many great characters, played primarily by Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall. I always wished they’d had a sequel focusing on the characters in the My-T-Sharp barber shop.

3. “The Empire Strikes Back” (1980)

The darkest of the Star Wars movies until the release of “Revenge of the Sith,” this was the best of the original trilogy. It gave us a deeper understanding of the Force and of course, let us all know who Luke Skywalker’s daddy was. People forget just how big a shock that was to moviegoers in 1980.

4. “The Graduate” (1967)

Such a well made movie, with so much subtle humor, and Katharine Ross was yummy as Elaine Robinson. I first saw this film as a freshman in college, and it really struck a chord with me at the time. There is a scene where Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) is in the pool, and his father asks what he is doing, and Benjamin responds, “Well, I would say that I’m just drifting.” That summed up my life at that point.

5. “The Big Lebowski” (1998)

I could have chosen any number of Coen brothers movies for this list, as I love nearly all of them. But the Dude and his pals make me laugh out loud every time I watch this movie. Talk about great lines, I could read quote lists from “The Big Lebowski” all day.

 As I write this, I remain on hold, waiting for a customer service supervisor from Dish Network to talk to me. This is the second time I’ve been on hold during this phone call … the first time taking roughly 10 minutes after I waded my way through the oh-so-convenient voice operated telephone service, repeating everything I said twice because apparently the mechanical operator, much like the customer service reps I’ve talked to repeatedly over the past few months, does not recognize English. When the customer service guy, Sylvester answered, I immediately asked for a supervisor. Sylvester hasn’t screwed me over, so there’s no reason to vent on him.

If I ever do get to talk to a supervisor, I believe my next step is to drive home, rip the satellite dish off my house, set fire to it, record it and post it on YouTube. I HATE DISH NETWORK. This company has been a nightmare to deal with… Oh wait, Sylvester the customer service rep tells me Fred the “floor supervisor” is about to take my call…

… no satisfaction from Fred. He tells me the lies told to me by the Dish Network salesman can’t be rectified. I’ve asked to talk to someone from the “executive department” (sounds impressive), so I am on hold again.

 This nightmare began in October with an innocuous little post card I received in the mail. I had been looking to upgrade to high definition service, and this particular “Special Offer” would provide me 75 HD channels as opposed to the nine HD channels my cable provider could offer.

When I called to take advantage of this special offer, I asked two questions: 1. Will my local channels by in HD? 2. Will I get Fox Sports Indiana — the station that carries local broadcasts of Indiana Pacers games? I would NEVER sign up for a system on which I could not watch the Pacers. I was given an emphatic “yes” to both questions.

 Come to find out, after my system was hooked up … an ordeal that took an entire Sunday (I’m not kidding, it was more than 5 hours, and included me having to rip the cork board off my garage wall, only for the highly skilled installer to realize that the splitter he needed was in my attic) and caused me to miss the first half of a Colts game … not only were my local channels NOT offered in HD, but I had to go out and buy a special 80-freaking-dollar cable in order to get ANY channels in HD  on my HD receiver. How does this work? I ordered HD satellite service. They guy came, installed it and left, yet no HD service. When I called to get phone service, I didn’t have to go out and buy wires that allowed my phone to work with the phone line the guy installed. When the phone guy left, I had phone service. But I digress.

The biggest concern for me was, Halloween night came, opening night of the Pacers season, and I did NOT have Fox Sports Indiana. I called the 800 number for Dish, explained the situation, and some woman magically flipped a switch and I had the game. She did not mention the word “upgrade” and she did not mention any additional cost.

But… when I started getting my bills, sure enough, I had been upgraded to a higher priced package. Soooo, a special offer thta was suppose to cost $44.99 a month for six months, and then $67 thereafter, was costing me more than $70 out of the gate.

Then my three month movie channel trial ended. I called to cancel those so I wouldn’t have to pay for them. Sure enough, I’ve been charged for them EVERY month since I’ve cancelled them. Then, I get my bill this month — did I mention it was suppose to be $44.99 a month? — well, this month’s bill was for $107.83. It included the upgrade, and two months of a premium movie package I had cancelled two months ago … wait, Fred is back on the line …

Aparently the big wigs in the “executive department” were too busy to talk to someone as insignificant as a customer. Fred did say they will give me the upgraded package (which includes the Pacers games) for the price of the lower package. THERE was that so hard? I’ve had three different “floor managers” including Fred tell me they simply could not do that. Well, apparently they can. Of course, I’m taking it with a grain of salt until I see next month’s bill. It will probably be $200.

I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed Saturday night’s slam dunk contest during the NBA’s All-Star weekend. That shocks me.

I’ve never been a huge fan of the dunk contest. I’ve always loved the three-point shooting contest, but I always found — with a few notable exceptions — the dunk contest to be anti-climactic at best, and painful to watch at worst. The past couple years have offered a couple memorable moments, which spurred the television commentators to declare that the contest was “back.” In reality, two or three memorable moments during the entire program does not mean the contest has returned to any prior glory that some feel it may have achieved.

Once again Saturday, the commentators slobbered all over themselves, with Magic Johnson repeatedly decrying the contest’s return — at least I think that’s what he was saying … Magic is hard to decipher sometimes. Only this time, I’d have to say, there was reason for excitement.

The contestants were very creative, and the night included some truly memorable moments. I think the one thing that makes it “feel” like the contest is exciting again, however, is Dwight Howard. Rather than simply parading out a caravan of reserves, the past couple years have featured the Man-Child from the Orlando Magic who is simply magnetic. He’s thrown down some dunks the past couple years that were graceful, creative and powerful — the ingredients that fueled the contest in its heyday of MJ and Dominique Wilkins. Howard is a superstar participating in a contest that lost its star power at least a decade ago. His dunk from behind the backboard Saturday was unbelievable.

My favorite moment, however, came from runner-up Gerald Green of the Minnesota Timberwolves. His birthday cake dunk made me nearly fall off the couch laughing. VERY entertaining. Check it out below.

I’m slowly becoming a believer. I’m not talking about the holy spirit here, but some type of spirit or spirits that reportedly share the Model Mill Building with the Noblesville Daily Times and other businesses.

I’m quite skeptical when it comes to most things. That’s partly due to my seeing-is-believing outlook on life, and partly because my given profession requires me to be so. I believe most ghost sightings, UFO close encounters and run-ins with Big Foot have some plausible explanation.

But I’ve also seen enough to know that we humans don’t know as much as we think we do.

I’ve long heard that the Model Mill Building is haunted. The historic structure is one of the stops on the Unseen Press ghost walks that visit locales around Noblesville. In October, around Halloween, I heard many stories of strange occurrences here in the building when we asked people for their personal ghost stories. Jerry Snyder recently wrote about some of the strange happenings and a couple deaths associated with the building in her “Now and Then” column in our paper.

As usual, I’d written most of those stories off to overactive imaginations. But some unexplained incidents have hit pretty close to home – particularly one that was reported to me this week.

Our digital media manager, Ryan Dillman – who is at least as big a skeptic as me – heard whistling and the sound of papers rustling in my office about 6 p.m. Thursday. That’s not unusual as I’m typically in my office at that time, and I frequently whistle while I work.

Ryan went into my office to talk to me, and found it empty. I had left early Thursday to meet my family for a Valentine’s Day dinner.

A bit confused, he began walking back to his desk when he heard giggling coming from my office. He checked each office in the newsroom, but all were empty.

This comes during a week when some very weird things have been going on with our computers and other equipment.

Technology always has some glitches, but some of the stuff that has happened this week defies explanation – folders getting moved in our system, files that I know I saved reverting back to a previous copy, our trusty printer refusing to print without warning and then deciding to print later, and much more. All week we’ve joked about gremlins running around the office.

After hearing Ryan’s story, maybe it isn’t gremlins, after all.

Ghost stories began popping up around the newsroom again Friday after we heard about Ryan’s experience.

Many times I’ve been in the newsroom alone about 2:30 or 3 a.m. on a Saturday after putting together that morning’s edition. Everyone else will have already left, when I hear the door to the newsroom open. I can’t see the door from my desk, so I assume it is one of the sports staff or Managing Editor Rob Borders coming back for something they forgot. When I don’t hear anyone, I go out into the newsroom to see that I’m still alone. This typically leads to me locking the newsroom door. I ain’t ’fraid of no ghost, but then again, my mamma didn’t raise no fool, either.

Several months ago, page designers Keri McGruder and Heather Hafer were leaving the newsroom, when they turned the corner and saw someone step onto the elevator. The door of the elevator remained open until they reached it. Stepping in, they were preparing to thank the person for holding the door for them. But no one was inside.

I’m sure some of these instances have perfectly plausible explanations. Strange noises aren’t uncommon in an old building. And computers tend to do things that make no sense. Of course, that’s what I’m going to keep telling myself.

Today I’m kicking off a new feature I’ll update every Friday. I’ll call it Five Favorites. It’s pretty self explanatory. I’ll list my five favorites in a given category. I hope you’ll respond, and let me know your five favorites in those same categories.  

 My initial list of five favorites is something near and dear to my heart — albums. I’ve always been a fan of that musical format. While others love singles, or hit records, I’ve liked the variety and sense of a complete work offered by albums. Some of my favorite songs of all time are deep cuts on albums, not necessarily the singles released by the record company.

Without further ado, my five favorite albums of all time, which aren’t necessarily listed in any particular order:

1. “Damn the Torpedoes” Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers:

Probably my No. 1 favorite album of all time. TP really started to find his voice as a songwriter on this album, sounding less like the Byrds or Beatles and more like the great American storyteller that he is. So many great songs, from “Refugee” to “Even the Losers”, and the band sounds fantastic on this album, raw, yet tight – like a great bar band.

2. Led Zeppelin’s untitled fourth album:

It was the first Zeppelin “cassette” I ever owned and opened the door to a whole new musical world for me. Many bought it for “Stairway to Heaven,” but “Rock and Roll” and “Black Dog” were the songs that led me to it. I’ve probably listened to that album more than any other in my lifetime.

3. “Toys in the Attic” Aerosmith:

One great song after another. Not only the classics like “Sweet Emotion” and “Walk This Way,” but the deeper cuts like “Uncle Salty” and the title track flat out rock, with those great Aerosmith riffs, and a hook every other second.

4. “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap” AC/DC:

I think this is one of the most overlooked rock albums of all time. Everyone knows the title track, but every song on this album tears it up. “Rocker” is just unbelievable — packing a great riff, great lyrics and three solo breaks into one 2:51 jam. The late great Bon Scott is at his best on Dirty Deeds, particularly on songs like “There’s Gonna Be Some Rockin’” and “Ain’t No Fun (Waiting Round to Be a Millionaire)”.

5. “Wildflowers” Tom Petty:

This album really snuck up on me. It was released in an era where everything TP  touched turned to platinum, so its quality wasn’t surprising when I first heard it. But the more I listened to it, the more impressed I became. Every song is so good, from the radio staples “You Wreck Me” and “You Don’t Know How it Feels” to lesser known beauties like “Wake Up Time” and the title track. This album has a timeless elegance to it that any artist would love to achieve.

It has finally happened. I am fully domesticated. Wednesday night, I bought a mini van.

It shouldn’t come as too great a shock to my system, after all, I already live in a subdivision in the suburbs, with my wife and 2.5 children and wear a tie to work. I keep my hair off my ears, I wave to my neighbors and I have lunch meetings. I just never envisioned the day where I would own a mini van.

I blame my wife, Michelle. You see, Michelle is a classy woman. She’s the type of girl who would have recoiled in fear from me and my friends in high school as we walked down the hall in our Iron Maiden and Ozzy concert T-shirts, hair past our shoulders, bathed in smoke.

Even as a young professional I maintained a certain wild side. While I might have attended city council meetings and circulated in polite society during the day as a reporter, at night you would have been much more likely to find me in a mosh pit than a cocktail party.

Then came a mortgage, and two kids, and Michelle. In the 11 years we’ve been together, I not only gave up my convertible Mustang, but my beloved pick up truck, as it wasn’t practical to haul around kids. I don’t spend most of my nights in bars anymore, and I make it to a fraction of the concerts I use to.

Don’t get me wrong, her influence on me has been for the best. She got me to move out of my apartment that frequently had no hot water, but plenty of holes in the ceiling, that I shared with at least one squirrel and many roaches. I’ve not had to attend a single 12-step program since we’ve been together, and she made me realize that punching people who pissed me off wasn’t a good way to handle most social encounters.

But a mini van? I’d fought her off on this issue for years. But when the transmission went out of her Jeep last weekend, I knew it was probably time for a new vehicle. And I knew the road we’d be headed down.

So now I am fully domesticated. There’s no looking back. Despite Peyton Manning’s advice, she’s not going to let me get a big No. 18 on the side of the van. There’s no disguising this symbol of all I use to loathe.

If I crank Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” in the CD player will that help me fight off middle age? No, it’s too late for me. I own a mini van for chrissakes.

My kids love Scooby Doo. Especially my 4-year-old son, Zach. Every evening we watch two episodes back to back on Cartoon Network. I must say this makes me happy, as I loved Scooby Doo when I was a kid, and as a college student — for entirely different reasons. But I digress.

What is cool about our nightly double feature is the fact that the first episode is from the classic “Scooby Doo Where Are You!” series I grew up watching. The second episode is from the more recent “What’s New Scooby Doo?” series. I was unaware this series, which was produced between 2002-2006, even existed until we started watching it about a month ago. I must say I dig “What’s New Scooby Doo?” (with the exception of a cameo by the band Smash Mouth, who I hate out loud. The old cameos by the likes of Sonny and Cher and the Harlem Globe Trotters were much better.) The newer series retains the spirit of the original, and even manages to poke a little fun at its predecessor.

I love that the producers of the new series took the time to update Fred’s and Daphne’s look, while Scooby, Shaggy and Velma remain unchanged. I do miss Fred’s ascot from the original series, though. Check out the classic and new looks.

Classic look

New look

I’m facing a bit of a musical conundrum. It centers around a CD entitled ”Kidz Bop 12.” I don’t know if I should embrace it, or chuck it into the White River without my son’s knowledge.

For those unfamiliar with the Kidz Bop collections, these are CDs full of current pop songs, only they are cover versions with kids singing. I have long hated pop music — from my youth when the likes of Culture Club ruled the charts to now — where game show contestants and 14 year old girls are all the rage. 

Thanks to this CD, not only do I get to listen to songs like “Girlfriend,” whenever I’m in the car with my kids, but I get to hear songs like it and ”How To Save a Life,” being performed by what sounds like sixth-grade choir classes.

 Clearly, I hate this CD. So what’s the problem? Several. First and foremost, my son loves it.

Both Zach and his little sister Emily seem to have developed a love for music like mine. Music is something I’ve always tried to make part of Zach’s and Emily’s lives, whether it is singing around the house or playing good music in their presence. When I use to take them to daycare each day, I’d play a different CD each week, so they’d hear it a couple times through and gain some familiarity. One week it might be the Beatles’ ”Abby Road,” the next week it might be Aerosmith’s “Toys in the Attic,” followed by Son Volt’s “Trace.” I tried to mix it up, but give them exposure to some great albums.

That changed when their mother started taking them to daycare. She likes pop music, and is quick to put in one of their “kiddie” CDs, with songs like “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.” Their daily exposure to great albums ended.

Then came the Kidz Bop 12 CD in question. My sister-in-law bought it for him because Zach, who now hears pop music each day in the car, likes some of the songs on it. I understand the SIL’s thinking. She is a true music lover and is open to a much broader variety of styles than me. She wanted her nephew to have a CD of songs he likes, and had no problem with him listening to pop music.

I DO have a problem with him liking pop music, and that is the part that is causing me the greatest discomfort. I’ve vowed to be less of a music snob. I’m trying lately not to cast aspersion onto those styles that I don’t like, and accept the fact that someone may indeed find Fergie to be an interesting and creative artist. Yet, it’s tough to overcome such prejudices overnight.

 So, do I give in and let my kids enjoy the type of music that gives them pleasure? I know the answer is yes. But I also know I must redouble my efforts to make sure they know who Ryan Adams and Eric Clapton are.

So, for the time being, I’ll try not to accidentally destroy Zach’s copy of “Kidz Bop 12″ and I’ll let my children’s musical tastes develop naturally. Now, if he comes home in a Tom Brady jersey, that is a different story altogether.