Where's Geoff Tate?

Here's an interesting graphic I stumbled across from something called Concert Hotels that graphs famous singers and their vocal range.

The Vocal Ranges of the Greatest Singers (via ConcertHotels.com; click on graphic for dynamic version that highlights songs on the low and high ends for each singer).

I'm not a singer so I can't speak to the accuracy of the list, although I'm shocked to learn Axl's range is so wide. But i do wonder where Geoff Tate, of Queensryche fame, might have landed. I've read of his seven-octave range, and this fan video below highlights that diversity.

What other dynamic vocalists do you wish were measured on the Concert Hotel list? 

Inside the head of Chuck Klosterman

Anyone who writes for a living or seriously for pleasure can sympathize with the accompanying challenges: inspiration, effectively creating your message and how readers interpret that work. 

And anyone who has ever read the wildly diverse work of Chuck Klosterman can probably guess he experiences angst at every step of the way.

Chuck KlostermanIndeed Klosterman -- who got his start as a newspaper music critic, before evolving into a gonzo journalist and best-selling author before settling into his role as The Ethicist columnist for The New York Times -- does just that on a Grantland podcast with Brian Koppelman. 

Click to read more ...

Why Putin does what he does

David Remnick's recent appearance on New Yorker's Out Loud podcast offers great insight into what drives Vladimir Putin' to do the things he does, as ill-advised as they might seem to the outside world.

This Out Loud segment is a companion to Remnick's related New Yorker article focusing on Putin and the Sochi Olympics but stands well on its own in light of the recent unrest in the Ukraine and gives us a preview of the philosophical and political stances we can expect from Putin in the future.