Well, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominations for 2007 have finally, finally been announced, and again without any hoopla or fanfare. The Cleveland Plain Dealer is again the first newspaper with the information, although this year they tried to make it seem more like the news was being "leaked" to them. Yeah, sure.

Al was once again ignored, now making it the third year in a row without a nomination. The new artists to be nominated this year are R.E.M., Van Halen, and the Ronettes. At least Al was passed over for some genuinely influential or highly successful acts this time, unlike last year when, if I remember correctly, he lost out to Kick Axe and the Banana Splits.

I know Van Halen fans have been checking out our site lately for whatever reason, so I can only imagine how jazzed they all are by this news. I couldn't be happier for them, even though it seems strange that it took this long for them to get nominated.

Returning nominees include Chic (why do they keep turning up? Just nominate the Sugar Hill Gang already), the Dave Clark Five (the only newbie from last year to come back), Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five (third year in a row), the Patti Smith Group (sixth time...yawn), the Stooges (fourth year in a row...again, yawn), and Joe Tex.

Oddly enough, there are only nine nominees this year, almost half of the sixteen from last year and the on-average fifteen from previous years. And yet, there still seems to be a lot of dead weight in the nominations list. Only three new artists? At this point in rock history we're already in 1981 here, and Van Halen had been waiting for three years. So what gives?

If you've been playing at home then you know that traditionally the nominations are revealed in mid-September, yet here we are just days before Halloween. Add this to the paltry amount of new blood in the list this year, and one must wonder what's going on.

An interesting quote came from the foundation's newly appointed president and CEO, Joel Peresman, who said, "We've made the committee smaller to move things along quicker." Shortly after taking the position in June, Joel had famously said "I think it would be interesting to have the fans participate somehow." I guess he meant theoretically.

So...the nominating committee is smaller to speed things up, yet the nominees are out later and are merely a repeat of the last two years with three new no-brainers added in? Huh??

The Rock Hall ballots haven't even been sent out yet to its voters, so who knows when we might actually hear any news of who will be inducted next spring. It seems as if the usual early-to-mid-December estimation would truly be miraculous at this rate.

Perhaps a bit surprisingly, one act that also didn't make the cut this year is Kiss, whose chances were getting a lot of press this past year due to a fan campaign similar to ours. Hopefully today's news won't discourage them, as we definitely need more fans of all groups pounding on the Rock Hall Foundation's proverbial doors until the public gets an official say in the nomination process.

Needless to say, this has been yet another strange chain of events in the recent history of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

If anything, at least today we learned a little bit of news. It seems the Rock Hall's nominating committee is headed up by Jon Landau, who is perhaps better known as manager to none other than Bruce Springsteen. So hey, maybe sending a nice card or greeting to Jon might be in order.

As for our campaign, yeah it's disappointing that Al didn't get the nod but this is hardly the end of the world. We've got a great year of campaigning to look forward to, with such ammo as a top ten album, a top ten single, a quickly growing petition, and even James Blunt already at our disposal. It will be fun and very productive.

First things first, be sure to vote for Al in VH1's Big in '06 Awards. "White & Nerdy" is up in the "Big Download" category. Click here to vote for Al...as many times as you want!

Also be sure to watch Al and the band on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno Thursday night. This is the first time the guys will be performing on the show in over two decades!

This is merely the calm before the storm. It's going to rain soon...and you know what they say, when it rains it pours!