Although Pink Floyd is the most successful Progressive Rock band of all time, their music incorporated many different influences. David Gilmour demonstrated this in his guitar playing, not only with his technique but especially through the feel he put into every note, which often led to comparisons with Blues guitarists. He was deeply influenced by that kind of music when developing his own style and spoke about many important American Blues artists. Gilmour shared his opinions on them, including the late legendary B.B. King. What is David Gilmour's opinion on B.B. King B.B. King was one of David Gilmour's biggest influences when growing up and curiously, the Bluesman was quite impressed by the Pink Floyd guitarist talent, even asking him once if he was sure he wasn't born in Mississippi. The British musician was once questioned which was his favorite musical memory and he mentioned that meeting. "I did play at a Les Paul tribute once in New York. I was playing a Blues number with B.B. King and at the end of the song he came up to me and said: 'Hey boy, you sure you wasn't born in Mississippi?' David Gilmour said (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage). He recalled the same story when talking to The Guardian in 2006, saying: “He’s a lovely chap. His early stuff was stupendous, and he’s just kept going. I first met him in New York. He came up to me and said, ‘Hey, boy, are you sure you weren’t born in Mississippi?’" David Gilmour continued: "I’ve played with him a couple of times since, on a Later With Jools Holland session and on one of his albums. When he’s in the dressing room, he spends all his time writing lyrics. There are some guitar players who are instantly recognisable, and then there are all the rest,” David Gilmour said. As David said, he had the chance to perform with B.B. King a few times. The first one in 1988 at the Les Paul tribute show and the second one in 1998 at the Jools Holland show on BBC Two. That day they performed the song “Eyesight To The Blind”. 11 years later, in 2009, King and Gilmour would be once again at the Jools Holland TV Show and this time they would perform the track "Pauly's Birthday Boogie". That song was part of B.B.'s 1997 album "Deuces Wild" and Holland had played the piano on it. Curiously, Gilmour also was part of that album, playing the guitar with King in the track "Cryin' Won't Help You Babe", which had Paul Carrack on vocals. David Gilmour said every young musician should study guitarists like B.B. King https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oTeyi1Ztsc&list=RD_oTeyi1Ztsc&start_radio=1&pp=ygUVYmIga2luZyBkYXZpZCBnaWxtb3VyoAcB One of the questions famous Rock stars are asked more often during interviews is always "which advice would you give to a young musician?' When talking about artists like B.B. King, in an interview with Relix magazine in 2015, Gilmour said young guitar players should study his work. After the interviewer mentioned artists like B.B. King, Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton and Peter Green, Gilmour said: “All of those guys were incredible and I spent time trying to learn how to play their licks perfectly. I would suggest any young player should try to sit down and do that. You will wind up knowing how to play their stuff quite well but, eventually, you will form your own style. It forces its way out of the copying,” he said. Besides B.B. King records, Gilmour also had in his house a book on B.B. King. That was revealed by Q magazine journalist D. Cavanagh, who interviewed the Pink Floyd member in 1999 and described how one of the rooms of the house were. "Leading us through a sitting-room and a kitchen - the latter decorated by the paintings of his young children - Gilmour makes coffee and parks himself in a low armchair in his study." He continued: "Around him, the shelves contain vinyl copies of Floyd's debut album, Piper At The Gates of Dawn ('I don't listen to it, no' - Gilmour said) Encyclopedia Britannica, a book on B.B. King and Please Kill Me, the story of New York punk rock." Although Pink Floyd is known primarily as a Progressive Rock band, Gilmour is actually a versatile guitarist and some of his influences can be heard on the band's discography and in his solo career. He once described himself as a "jack of all trades" when it comes to guitar playing and used B.B. King as an example of the kind of guitarist he couldn't be. "Im a real jack of all trades. I’m completely the anti-purist. I was never going to dedicate my life to being B.B. King. My influences were Pete Seeger, Lead Belly, Bob Dylan, Hank Marvin, all the Blues guys and everything. It was all a complete hotchpotch, a mass of different styles and influences. I saw no reason why all these influences could not co-habit reasonably and I still don’t!" David Gilmour told Record Collector in 2003. When Gilmour was born in 1946, B.B. King already had a 4-year career in music. By the time Gilmour would start his career, in 1963, King had already released 12 albums. The American musician passed away in 2015 at the age of 89 and was active until the very end, playing his final show less than one year earlier. During his career he released 43 studio albums and almost 140 singles.The post David Gilmour’s opinion on B.B. King appeared first on Rock and Roll Garage.

Announced layoffs threatening to decimate a weakened US Education Department are stoking fears among special education advocates, families, and school leaders over the potential fallout for more than 190,000 students with disabilities in Massachusetts. The federal cuts, which were announced Oct. 10 amid a government shutdown, would largely eliminate Education Department staff who ensure students receive support from their schools through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the 50-year-old landmark law that guarantees that students with disabilities have a right to a free and appropriate public education.

An office dedicated to special education within the U.S. Department of Education was heavily impacted during mass layoffs issued as the federal government remains shut down for the third week, CNN reported. The office served millions of people who have disabilities nationwide. The Education Department’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services is mostly empty, with the exception of some top officials, after the White House sent layoff notices. According to court records, Stephen Billy, senior advisor for the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) said that an estimated 466 employees in the Education Department were given layoff notices on Oct. 10.

Donald Trump began his promised mass purge of federal workers Friday, as more than 4,100 people were laid off as the government shutdown rolls on. The president previewed the pink slips in a press conference in the Oval Office earlier Friday, blaming them and the shutdown on the Democrats. 'It'll be a lot and it'll be Democrat-oriented because we figure they started this thing. It'll be a lot of people, all because of the Democrats,' Trump said.

So many of us, even those with full-time jobs, are looking for ways to make a little extra money. It’s vital not only for these challenging economic times, but it’s also a huge factor in creating real financial freedom. This is certainly something most millionaires have figured out. But it can be hard to figure out what that side hustle could be. It's even harder to know whether or not the effort we put in will pay off in dividends. Many of us have a distorted concept of “passive income,” thinking that the side hustle we choose will require zero effort at some point. Unfortunately, other than investing, that’s not entirely true. However, there are definitely ways to drum up side hustles that make sense with your lifestyle, that draw on your own interests, skills, and values, and truly add to your life, whether they be through acts of service, reselling items online, or creating new items (be they artistic or practical).You can see this reflected in the answers given when someone on Reddit recently asked, “What’s something you do on the side that makes real extra money?” This OP added that they were hoping to raise an extra $2,000 a month, and people were quick to be candid about how doable that really is. As someone pointed out, "$2K/mo is really more like a second job than a side gig" in terms of how much time and effort is needed. Still, there are some pretty unique and time efficient ideas below, like private baseball coaching and being an elderly companion, that could get someone close to $500 a week.Here are some of our favorite Reddit responses:1. "I sell rare house plants on the side. ""If I want some money for a spa or date night, I’ll just chop and propagate some plants for an easy $300-$500…Rare alocasias, monsteras, and anthuriums. There are a ton of people who collect, trade, etc. It’s my hobby, which has made it so easy to turn into a side hustle. Best part is it’s all cash." House plants. Photo credit: Huy Phan/Pexels 2. "Election work.""Literally in 14 days this year, I'll gross $6,900. Long days, easy peasy work."3. "I host bar trivia." "It's usually three hours a night, and it makes me about $150 a night (plus tips). I'm actually trying to make this my full-time job; I enjoy it so much. It's not hard to buy trivia games or hook up with an existing company. I am independent and write my own games that I try to sell on the side."4. "I have a kettle corn pop-up.""I do fairs, festivals, pumpkin patches, and can turn $300 of product and space rent into $6k+ sales in a day. Some states require [a food or vendor license] but in my popcorn is exempt from licensing because of its very low risk for foodborne illness."5. "Landscaping." "Cash under the table, you dictate how many jobs you want to take on, and you can focus on one specific neighborhood to limit gas mileage. A mower, trimmer, blower, and small trailer will all pay themselves off in three weeks. It’ll beat you up a little, but it’s rewarding work. It’s also extremely straightforward. As long as you do what you’re supposed to do, the customer will be happy. Don't target people with complex yards. Drive through the neighborhood and find someone who's obviously over a month behind on mowing their lawn. Knock and offer to do it for $40. Tell them you'll come back every two weeks if that works for them. Get to a point where you've got 10 or so yards on rotation and you can knock them out in a day. $400 for a day's work every two weeks, under the table. Do more or less depending on how much or little you want to make."6. "I used to flip furniture on Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace. "I did have to invest in a small trailer and a good cleaner. But I would get free or cheap furniture. Clean it and spruce it up. Sell it for a couple hundred bucks. Mostly couches." Two brightly colored chairs. Photo credit: ERIC MUFASA/Pexels7. "I make cosplay props for people.""I use my personal social media, and I have a commissions page on Ko-Fi. People will see what I usually make and ask me if I am able to make a certain prop. I will then make an agreement with the customer before starting the work."8. "I put up and take down Christmas lights on weekends and evenings from October to January." "$24k a season is very doable, but you gotta be able to haul and carry ladders, confidently and safely climb up and down ladders, and be OK with working in the wind and rain in the coldest part of the year. It isn’t glamorous, but it can be a nice chunk of extra money."9. “If you're even a little handy, you can make good money as a handyman in elderly neighborhoods." "My dad started out just helping neighbors with hanging curtains, painting bathrooms, etc... after about a year he was busy enough to quit his full time job and just work for himself. You don't need a lot of tools or an expensive truck, but if you can operate a drill, swing a brush, and are good with old people - there's good paying work out there for you.”10. "I work as an ad model." "All kinds of ads. Internet, TV, print. Work is sporadic and irregular, which means you'd better have solid income from a main source. But a little $500-$800 check from time to time sure comes in handy. "Generally, one can set up an account for a small annual fee on places like castingnetworks.com or actorsaccess.com. Specifically, it would be better if you would connect with a local talent/modeling agency. They will also ask you to sign up for a talent website, and you’re going to need professional photos. Spend money on THAT, for sure. Good photos are critical!"11. "I did Rover for three years, boarding dogs in my home." "I made $11k a year consistently. Month to month could vary widely, $0-$2k, but I always finished the year the same. But you really should have some experience and be an actual responsible person, because dogs are living beings and deserve proper care. You also need to account for things like Rover fees (20%), taxes, insurance, supplies, and licensing laws. You will end up working all holidays because that's the busiest season for dog sitting, and you'll need to commit your schedule months in advance." Two golden retriever puppies. Photo credit: Chevanon Photography/Pexels12. “Over ten years ago I started my own hummus business." "Took a bit to get started but once I was accepted to different farmer’s markets, I made pretty good dough. But omg setting up a tent and tables at 5:30am on weekends was not fun after a couple of years. It was called Bean There, Done That and I had tons of creative flavors (and punny names).”13. "I started a YouTube channel a few years ago, and now it’s actually pulling in between $1,500 and $3,000 a month!" "It’s nuts!!! It was just a hobby. I talk about tech stuff. I review computers, network-attached storage systems, and occasionally a tech company I follow pretty closely. My channel name is the same as my Reddit name. It did take several years before money started flowing, but now it's a pretty great side hustle because it's something I would do for free anyway."14. "I participate in focus groups and research studies." "They're a pretty cool way to spend a couple of hours, and they usually pay $150-$250 a pop. I do this with several research companies in my area because most of them only let you participate once every few months. So, if you keep filling out questionnaires and screeners with various research companies, you can rotate through them and get picked more often. Using this method, I participate in one or two studies per month. I've actually been grinding hard on applying for research studies for the last few months to pay off my credit card debt. Been making some pretty good progress!"15. "Deliver pizza for a local place under the table." "You can do pretty good Friday night through Sunday."16. "My very first month of donating plasma, I made $900." "Paid for my three-and-a-half week road trip last summer to Canada. I only do it once a week now because the center closest to me changed their hours, so I get $40 a week instead of my usual $100, but that’s still an extra $160 a month I put back into savings that doesn’t have to come out of my normal paychecks, it’s just extra. So that’s nice. I do miss the $400 months, though."17. "None of these enterprises have made me two thousand a month individually, but all of them combined have equaled that over many months of production." "Edible mushrooms. Microgreens. Composting worms. Compost. Vegetable plant starts. Cloned fruit trees. I've been doing these for years, and I sell directly to consumers, no restaurants or middlemen."18. "I make about $120/hr coaching baseball lessons." "I’ll spend a weekend with 10 lessons coaching middle school to college athletes. I also charge $75/month to program throwing/pitching training. This can be 10-30 pitchers a session, ranging from high school to professional. It’s about 5-15 extra hours a week." Baseballs on the ground. Photo credit: Steshka Croes/Pexels19. "I used to sell my artwork online, it was a good $15,000 to $20,000 a year."20. "I work freelance in the arts." "I’ve done a decent job advertising my own business and have developed a side hustle doing social media marketing for other small businesses. Writing posts, finding imagery, and scheduling the posts in advance. The amount of actual work varies from month to month, but the retainer fee does not, and it’s made my life much easier and more predictable."21. "I started a cleaning business." "It was very easy, and I did it on Saturday afternoons. I just posted my contact info, services, and prices to local online communities. I worked for a young, wealthy couple cleaning a condo two to three times a month. I got around $600 extra per month for just a general cleaning. I also now include move-out cleans, which can get me $400-$600 per job. It's not huge cash, but it helped me kick a car note down from $24k to $16k. And that was with one client."22. "During the winter, I sell 3D-printed ornaments and make between $100 and $300 a week for the first two to three weeks of December." "I specifically target the last-minute crowd and get most of my work through word of mouth. Production cost per ornament is $1.04. It takes me under an hour to make/edit the model, and then it takes 5-8 hours to print, but that can be done while I'm sleeping. I charge between $15 and $25 for an ornament. Last year, I also started selling name ornaments for $5 a pop, but they take under two hours to edit and print, so they're easy to make in large batches. These customers also tend to message me throughout the year, so I make around $600 during the Christmas season and $20-$100 other months. So kinda $20 here and there with a big yearly payout."23. "Real estate Photography." "It's usually $150 per house, $300 if it's a large property, and I need to use a drone. It takes about an hour to shoot and less than an hour to edit. I usually do two to three houses throughout the week. I'll stop on my way home from work, then on Saturday, I can group appointments by location. My busiest Saturday was seven houses. It's really easy. You just need a camera capable of HDR and a lens with a wide angle. I use a Nikon 16-24mm and a tripod." A house for sale. Photo credit: Pixabay/Pexels24. “I do side work car repairs." "And by repairs I mean mostly just brakes. To get 4 brakes and rotors done at a shop today is typically around $1000 or more, because they up-charge parts and labor. I am able to do it for people for around $600. I charge $300-400 in labor (for 2 hours of work), and the parts just cost what they cost. So I save people a few hundred dollars and I make a few hundred myself. Sometimes I do one of these a month. Sometimes I do a few of them. I would like to get one a week, cause then I could legit get an extra $300 a week.”This article originally appeared in June

Back in 1905, a book called "The Apples of New York" was published by the New York State Department of Agriculture. It featured hundreds of apple varieties of all shapes, colors, and sizes, including Thomas Jefferson's personal favorite, the Esopus Spitzenburg.That was 120 years ago, when commercial apple orchards were still pretty rare and when even in the biggest of those orchards, everything was done by hand. 1905, image of an apple orchard in OregonPublic Domain Yeah, yeah, yeah. But why is that apple book such a big deal? The book is significant because most of the apples listed in it have all but disappeared in the past century. DISAPPEARED. In fact, we used to have thousands of apple varieties, but most of those have largely vanished due to industrial agriculture. Now, many varieties are only found tucked away in agricultural research centers and preservationist orchards.Fact: Today, the 15 most popular apple varieties account for 90% of all apple sales in the U.S. The most commonly sold apple? Red delicious.2025 looks so differentThe fate of all those apple varieties is not uncommon. "In the last century, nearly 75% of our agricultural crops have disappeared. They're simply gone. Today, farmers primarily grow 12 crops. And of these, we mainly eat potatoes, rice, corn, and wheat." The apples we eat today are a small fraction of what used to be available.Photo credit: CanvaSo what gives? Why the huge shift? In part, the shift has a lot to do with seed regulation. Back in the day, farmers would save seeds from year to year and share them with friends and neighbors. But nowadays, most seed production is controlled by big companies — and those companies patent their seeds, prohibiting things like seed saving or sharing.So what do we do now?Not all hope is lost (yay!). It may be an uphill battle, but there are lots of small farmers working to preserve the freedom to freely share and use seeds. People store thousands of seeds from all around the world in buildings called seed banks, and trade with other farmers at seed swaps."They're preserving culture and biodiversity, one seed, one plant, and one person at a time." How 'bout them apples? (No, really, I bet those antique apples they're swappin' are ridiculously tasty.)To check out the full story from The Lexicon of Sustainability, watch the video below:In the years since...Since we first covered this story, there have been some changes in the world of Apples. Nationally, Red Delicious is no longer the top seller; Gala has held the No. 1 spot in recent seasons (about 17% of U.S. production in 2024–25), with Red Delicious, Granny Smith, Honeycrisp and Fuji rounding out the leaders. Newer darlings like Cosmic Crisp continue to climb—especially in Washington, the country’s largest producing state—where it’s now among the top five grown.Meanwhile, the hunt for “lost” apples has accelerated. The Lost Apple Project and partner sleuths keep turning up forgotten cultivars across the Inland Northwest and beyond, publishing a 2025 master list of rediscovered varieties and inviting the public to help track down more. It’s a small but hopeful countercurrent to the last century’s big consolidation. This article originally appeared last year.

Men discovering all that women go through physically and hormonally can be a fun ride. It's a journey that generally starts with the denial that things are bad in the world of women's health, then quickly transitions into shock. The men who publicize their parlay into women's health generally don't share much after the first couple of mind-boggling discoveries. But one man has been documenting new-to-him discoveries about women's health for weeks.Women's health is a topic that many people, including women themselves, do not fully understand. This isn't for a lack of trying on the part of women, but due to the lack of interest in scientific research regarding women's health. Science is still a male-dominated field, which means that oftentimes the struggles that women have faced for generations are overlooked. There's even a book called Invisible Women (2019), about how male-centric research has left women out of the loop of safety in multiple areas. Woman at the doctor's office. Photo credit: CanvaThe medical gaslighting that seems to happen around the concerns women bring to their doctors is pervasive if you're inclined to believe women's lived experience. Thankfully, in more recent years, researchers, medical doctors, and some men have been taking women's health much more seriously. Researchers have been making groundbreaking discoveries in the research of female-bodied individuals. René Jay recently embarked on a journey of his own to learn more about women's health issues. He uploads a video every time he learns something new so he can share with his audience his utter shock and dismay. It's been something that some women have started looking forward to, even offering up areas he should explore. View this post on Instagram A post shared by René Jay ?? (@bornwithadarktan)In his first video posted to Instagram, he is already feeling frustrated. "I feel like women should be madder," he says. "Bro, how are y'all even remotely accepting this, but then you're like, wait, they're not accepting it. This is why every woman I've ever met she talks about her own health, she immediately gets angry, and I've been like, 'Why are you getting so angry?' Now I get it, because you go to the doctor, and the doctor is so consistently condescending about your health."Jay continues in the video, sharing how doctors will simply act as if they have no idea how to answer or help with seemingly simple concerns. This initial video shares what he's learned in the first 48 hours, but his journey continues in subsequent videos. By hour 72, the curious man learns about the tenaculum, a medical device used to hold the cervix during gynecological procedures. He is shocked by the thought of women only being offered Tylenol considering the level of pain inflicted during the use of the device. View this post on Instagram A post shared by René Jay ?? (@bornwithadarktan)On day 10, Jay expresses frustration with the medical system on behalf of women. "I'm trying to figure out why in the hell, every single time a woman goes to a doctor, she's told that she has to lose weight. But it doesn't really make sense to me because I've been trying to figure out, like okay, logically, what if the weight gain is the symptom? And I'm like, really having trouble figuring that out." He shares that he's truly baffled by how doctors seemingly ignore serious concerns while only offering birth control or weight loss as a solution without thorough investigation. By day 21, the man seems to be reaching his limit for the medical nonsense women can face. After looking up what a cervical biopsy is and how it's done, his frustration is clear, "It's day 21, I just looked up what a cervical biopsy is. Y'all need more drugs. Listen, who do I need to fight, who do I need to write, because that? Y'all need more drugs for that." Woman at the gynecologist.Photo credit: CanvaHe shares that he understands the importance of a cervical biopsy; he's simply objecting to the lack of pain medication provided. Jay animatedly demands that women should be provided pain management before during and after the experience. He also notes that the "pinch" doctors claim women will feel during the procedure is much more than a pinch. View this post on Instagram A post shared by René Jay ?? (@bornwithadarktan)In every video uploaded, Jay either finds himself horrified or angry. But he's not just learning about modern day women's health, he's learning about the history as well, including that the chainsaw was invented to cut through women's pelvises during childbirth. According to How Stuff Works, the method was called a symphysiotomy and was only used when the baby wasn't able to descend out of the birth canal naturally. While a literal chainsaw like we're used to seeing today wasn't the tool used, it was a smaller hand cranked version, and it sparked the idea for the bigger one that cuts down trees. Jay is continuing his journey into women's health, determined to learn as much as he can while calling for more research. Women have become the biggest champions of his self education with one woman saying, "I want you to know this video series makes me so happy, and also I’m learning things I didn’t know about my own body." Women's health.Photo credit: CanvaAnother woman writes, "Absolutely love you for learning and becoming knowledgeable about women’s health and health issues.""As someone who has had both a cervical biopsy and a LEEP procedure I'm so sorry that you are going to be educated in this way. I am thrilled that you're taking the time to educate yourself but yeah this one's a rough one," someone else shares.One person is enjoying the journey, writing, "I absolutely LOVE your videos! Watching you learn and seeing your reactions gives me a moment of happiness in this crazy world we live in. Thank you for sharing your journey with us all!!!"