Category Archives: Commentary

Where Was Stuffnobodycaresabout.com For Almost A Week?

An Explanation For Those Who Wonder Why Recently There Was No StuffNobodyCaresAbout.com

To Our Readers:

From March 20 -March 24 we were offline. Gone. Kaput. Website does not exist. And a feeling of helplessness as far as getting everything back and running again. What happened?

Server and hosting issues.

It’s not like millions of people noticed as if Amazon went down. As a matter of fact, appropriately, we don’t think anybody really cared. Continue reading

Baseball’s First Electronic Ball – Strike Machine – 1950

Branch Rickey Inspects An Automatic Umpire, Electronic Ball Strike Indicator

Newest Dodger
Vero Beach, FL –  (L-R) Branch Rickey, Dodger President, Dick Shea, electronics engineer from General Electric, umpire Bill Stewart and Fresco Thompson scout for the Dodger system. They are looking over Rickey’s newest pet – a mechanical umpire that calls balls and strikes and gives speed of pitch over the plate.It is worked by means of a magic eye. It won’t replace the human umpire because it can’t operate at night. photo: Gunther-Keystone 3/15/1950

The machine pictured above was called the “cross-eyed electronic umpire.” It was claimed the machine “could call balls and strikes closer than any normally endowed arbiter.”

Always the innovator, Branch Rickey said, “I expect it to be of definite value in determining the abilities of young pitchers since the machine also will establish the velocity of a fast ball as well as to show beyond question whether the ball is in or outside the strike zone.”

But Rickey also emphasized that he machine was “not intended now or ever to replace manual umpiring in actual games.” Continue reading

It’s Gone! Yankees Say Goodbye To George Steinbrenner’s Facial Hair Rules

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

After 50+ Years Yankees FINALLY Get Rid Of Facial Hair Policy

A 2026 free agent, Cousin Itt  could now sign a Yankee contract. First he must clarify is that is facial or head hair.

After more than 50 years of enforcing a no long hair or beards policy, Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner said on February 21, 2025  they would discontinue the facial hair ban.

Seven years ago we told the complete fascinating, tangled story of how George Steinbrenner implemented his no long hair or beards rule and the controversies that erupted since then.

Some media outlets are saying the ban started in 1976. It did not. The ban began Continue reading

Crime In New York City 1838 & Today

New York City Crimes Committed And Their Sentences 1838

 Jail Time Then – Leniency Now

How many people long for the good old days when it comes to punishing crime?

Some people may lament the lack of strict law enforcement in New York today. There has always been crime in New York, but how has crime and its consequences changed? Continue reading

13 Classic Heavy Metal Songs With The Vocals Only

Isolated Vocals On 13 Songs From Classic Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Judas Priest, Motley Crue & Other Bands

Ian Gillan, Deep Purple photo: Jan Persson

We will conclude our overview of isolated vocals with a selection of songs from some of the most iconic hard rock and heavy metal bands.

What you may notice in listening to these cuts is that more than other types of rock, heavy metal has people who can sing and others who greatly benefit with the helping hand of compression and echo.

There were many bands to possibly profile and limiting the number of songs to a bakers dozen was a challenge. While we would consider including Metallica, Megadeth, Exodus, Anthrax, Slayer, Testament and other thrash bands, we left them out this time. Maybe we’ll revisit this subject in the future.

Originators

Starting things off is the band that many fans consider the inventors of heavy metal, Black Sabbath with Paranoid (vocals – Ozzy Osbourne)

In music polls, Led Zeppelin is consistently ranked as the one of the greatest bands in rock history. They also influenced practically every hard rock and metal band even if Zeppelin themselves did not call themselves a “heavy metal” band. This is their iconic 1971 song Rock and Roll (vocals-  Robert Plant)

Most rock fans can name the song in three notes. If Deep Purple did not Continue reading

Former Iron Maiden Singer Paul Di’Anno Dies At 66 – Essential Ingredient To Maiden’s Success

Paul Di’Anno Was Crucial To Iron Maiden’s Rise To The Top Of Heavy Metal

Vocalist Paul Di’Anno (left) & bassist Steve Harris (right) of Iron Maiden photo: EMI

Paul Di’Anno the original vocalist on Iron Maiden’s 1980 eponymous debut album and 1981 follow-up Killers, died today at his home in Salisbury, England at the age of 66. Di’Anno was fired (or quit according to Di’Anno) from Iron Maiden in 1981.

Di’Anno had numerous health issues over the past few decades and for the last several years Di’Anno would sing while seated in a wheelchair.

The first two Iron Maiden studio albums plus a 1981 live EP release, Maiden Japan, showcase the prowess of a young hungry band and the unabashed vocals of Paul Di’Anno. The albums represent the punk-metal hybrid that Iron Maiden was originally producing.

Without Di’Anno the band would jettison the punk edges in lieu of a more polished heavy metal sound.

How much and what Di’Anno contributed is difficult to quantify. Four words come to mind to describe early Maiden. Edgy. Raw. Unyielding. Powerful.  It’s best to see and hear Di’Anno live.

Live At The Rainbow December 21, 1980

Post-Di’Anno, Iron Maiden would rise to worldwide fame with their new singer Bruce Dickinson.

During his short time with Iron Maiden, Di’Anno managed to capture a large group of fans who would remain convinced Di’Anno was the not just the preferred vocalist Continue reading

Listen To 6 Beatles Songs With The Vocals Only

The Beatles Talent Shines With Vocals Only On Six Of Their Hits

It would be a stretch to say the Beatles are underrated considering they pushed the boundaries of rock ‘n’ roll to new levels. But to listen to how incredibly good they were as singers and at  group harmonies when you listen to the vocals only, is pretty amazing.

As we did previously with other rock bands here are 6 songs by The Beatles with isolated vocal tracks.

First is the song that would catapult the Beatles to superstardom in the USA, I Want To Hold Your Hand from 1963.

I’m Looking Through You from 1965 is about Continue reading

A Dozen Rock ‘N’ Roll Hits Like You’ve Never Heard Them Before

Isolated Vocals Means Hearing A Song You’ve Heard Hundreds Of Times In A New Way

Roger Daltrey and Pete Townsend The Who photo; London Features, Neal Preston

With these versions where all the other instruments have been eliminated but the vocals, you can hear the singer’s voice as an instrument itself. These songs range from 1969 – 1980, all before the invention of pitch correction (aka auto-tune) which many music purists believe ruined music forever. These songs are from an era when singers actually had to be able to sing. Continue reading

Old New York In Photos #171 – Lower East Side Immigrants Shopping 1907

Lower East Side Pushcarts With “Imported Americans” 1907

This stereoview published by Underwood & Underwood in 1907 says in its caption:

“Imported Americans”, shopping from push-carts in the Lower East Side, N.Y. City.

Although the neighborhood is unidentified it appears to be Little Italy with Mulberry Bend Park on the left.

This not so veiled aspersion of “Imported Americans” is typical of the apprehensions Continue reading