The Wombat File Is Yours to Keep

Glad to have you back, BT. I hear that stuff is better than Ambien.

1) Though a guitarist, I am culturally stunted. I'm guessing one or both Indigo Girls may be on the list.

2) I'm reminded of a Soviet-era joke. A sculptor was commissioned to honor the late Russian poet Aleksandr Pushkin. The statue came back of Pushkin holding a volume of his poems, but the review committee recommended a change. The next version showed Pushkin holding a volume of Lenin. Better, the committee said, but one more thing. The final version was approved of Lenin, holding a volume of Pushkin.
So I'll say St. Petersburg, Lenin, and Stalin.

For #1, I'll go ahead and throw out the obvious answer: 0.

I'll guess the number of guitarists is two: Joni Mitchell and Bonnie Raitt.

I'm close to 100% sure that my favorite female guitarist in popular music, Joan Armatrading, is not on the list.

Then, because I suspect that wouldn't have flown in 2003, I'll say they chose 5:

Joan Jett, Lita Ford, PJ Harvey, one of the Wilsons in Heart, and the guitarist for Sleater-Kinney.

(dang it, Scraps, how did I forget all three of them?)

Oh, wombat, I just don't know how to quit you.

Rolling Stone? Didn't that used to be the journal of rebel-become-the-man when we were all still rebels?

I'll guess that Rolling Stone said three: Sheryl Crowe, Tracy Chapman, and Memphis Minnie.

Strange timing:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7342168.stm

If they felt like they needed to have some pre-1970s representation, maybe they picked Odetta.

Guitarists in Sleater-Kinney: Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker.

And if they wanted to represent punk/postpunk, they could pick Pat Place; but that's pretty unlikely. More of a Q pick.

I remember the answer to Bill's first question quite vividly, although I had nothing at all to do with the list or the package; I will recuse myself and let him pass out the laurels. (Did I mention I had nothing to do with the list?)

I would very much like the answer to the second question to be Stonehenge and the Fisher King.

OK, I feel incredibly stupid not to have noticed the connection between "Rolling Stone" and dragging a big boulder. Once again, the Wombat has failed you.

Scraps and Hackly, however, have not and share the honors with regard to #1. Joni Mitchell is the highest-ranked female guitarist on the list (at No. 72) with Joan Jett at No. 87). Ms. Mitchell's innovative tuning style is particularly well-known, so it's no surprise that she's there. I'm less of a Jett aficionado and know correspondingly less about her relative instrumental mastery.

(The list, sans commentary, is here: http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/5937559/the_100_greatest_guitarists_of_all_time

Perhaps Gavin, now that the answers have been revealed, has a few words to say about it).

Still nothing correct on #2.

(I myself feel that Brownstein and Tucker certainly beat out some of the folks listed there...but then, a lot of my admiration for S-K came after The Woods, which is later than this list).

I would have thought Bonnie Raitt was right up Rolling Stone's alley.

I'll admit that I wouldn't have recognized Pat Place (contortions, bush tetras) but having nearly finished No Wave, now I know.

Alexandria, Alexander the Great, his successor...

Were I still able to use cheap false identities, I'd post "oops, I was looking for StrumpetFile", and sign it "Spitzey." And if I could time travel, I'd have done it a month ago.

As it is, I'll guess Pyongyang, Kim Jong Il, and Kim Sung Il, not necessarily in that order, and not necessarily spelled that way. But you get my North Korea kind of gist.

And, in answer to the question of whom I want posting quizzes at 3am, I say simply buy emphatically, "Wombat, Wombat, Wombat!"

By the fact that I've posted to this thread, I'm guessing it has now officially gone dormant. Sorry. They actually expect me to work at this current job.

2. Beijing, Mao Tse Tung, Deng Xiaoping.