• Big Boi

"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results." - Albert Einstein... or maybe Rita Mae Brown... or Benjamin Franklin (the Internet disagrees.)

If you're a moron like me, last week you spent way too many hours watching the VH1 100 Greatest Artists of All Time countdown. If you missed it, then you don't know that (one of VH1's chosen "experts") Billy Joel's daughter Alexa Ray thinks her dad is a great artist (wow!) or that WWE superstar Chris Jericho thought that The Beatles (No. 1) were sooo cool. One word: misery. But I watched it.

Now, clearly, I understand why television producers and magazine editors continuously pull this countdown crap. There is no surer way to get me to read/watch your product than to promise me definitive answers to subjective topics -- because I'm an idiot. But unless you're counting down the order of numbers -- hard to dispute "1" ranking higher than "2," but we can discuss it -- I guarantee you that I'll be mad at you by the end. And yet, I keep watching making me, by definition, insane. You win, VH1. You win.

My rant could (and maybe should) extend all the way through the NCJ's real estate section, but we have other business to attend to. Admittedly, one point that it would be hard to argue about is that all of the artists on the countdown have had something beyond immense cultural impact. So any time an artist on the VH1 list graces geographically isolated Humboldt County, it's a big deal, right? Of artists on the countdown, I count 5 1/2 that I know who made the trek. (If there are more, forgive my memory/age.) No. 9: James Brown; No. 43: Ray Charles; No. 48: Parliament/Funkadelic; No. 77: Lynyrd Skynyrd; No. 91: Green Day (before they were "big"); and lastly, (still pending) half of No. 95 Outkast who is coming next week.

(Side note: No. 35 Johnny Cash was scheduled to Van Dooze-it but fell victim to the "Center Arts Curse"... he died before he could make it. Quitter.)

[Editor's note: No. 73, Van Morrison played here, but probably before Andrew was born. No. 26, Neil Young and No. 25, Chuck Berry both played the Muni, but again, too long ago for Andrew to remember.]

(Side note: Thanks, Bob.)

My guess is you have no plans for Wednesday night? Wrong. HSU's Associated Students Presents brings Big Boi to the Arcata Community Center on Sept. 22 at 9 p.m. Tickets are $50/$40 for starving students. Pricey, perhaps. But, as you can see, VH1 Greatest 100 Artists have a tendency to die. So don't blow this chance.

His accomplishments with Outkast aside, lately Big Boi has been touting himself as his more mature alter-ego, Sir Lucious Left Foot and, while on hiatus from his arguably more famous Outkast-partner Andre 3000, the Boi has been touring heavily in support of the nearly universally praised July 2010 release Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty. Don't worry. This is not another self-indulgent artist's Chris Gaines-style undertaking. You can expect sharp, raw rhymes over heavy, funky beats. Dude knows his bread and butter.

So, there you go. Be sure to tune in to the Journal next week, when we count down the 100 Greatest Plazoids of Arcata.