First, this morning's brilliant comment on our modern reality from xkcd (click through to the site for full version). Which reminded me that I had been saving this article for post-holiday reading, an essay which teased "new devices that make downloaded music sound good." For audiophiles who die a little every time they hear the term "mp3" (let alone the actual sound files) and for those of us who swear the difference is indistinguishable, Kaplan's article is a nice review of the situation. In … [Read more...]

Can't decide which classic holiday film to watch this weekend? Toss those chestnuts in the oven and get into the spirit of the season with this true story of two accidental elves. Fair warning: It's a tearjerker of a tale. [via] Happy Holidays, everyone! See you in 2011! … [Read more...]

I've never been a gamer; that's likely due to the fact that despite the hand-eye coordination you'd assume a concert violinist possesses natively, if you put a button-laced controller in my hands I tend to stink up the place. Even Guitar Hero confounds me. When I read about Papa Sangre on BoingBoing this afternoon, however, I was so taken with the idea of a completely audio-driven game that I only hesitated for a moment before clicking to proceed on the purchase of this $6.99 iPhone app. (Hey, … [Read more...]

I'm not much for those "end-of-year, top ten, most awesomest things that we read/heard/saw and can fill the remaining short days of December arguing about" lists. Push John Cage to the top of the charts if it makes you happy, twist up Yogi Bear and impress the internet by all means, but why reduce your yearly experiences to ten items when the sum of all the parts can generate something like this: [via] … [Read more...]

Great to see this digital native speak passionately about social issues and debunk the idea that his generation would never think "about anything bigger than our Facebook profiles and our TV screens." Still, another side to the speeding social technology train (re: the future) also caught my attention this weekend: [via] … [Read more...]

David Lynch is now writing electro-pop, yet considering the twisted paths his films have led us down, I hope at some point he decides to make a similarly distinct statement with his music. Meanwhile, the film studio that is our living room produced a concert trailer for Mobtown Modern's upcoming Ken Ueno portrait concert. The resulting teaser is not even close to Lynch-level creepy, but still, what a difference context makes. … [Read more...]

Even as a tween, I was never much of a boy band fan, but the Maccabeats, coming to us out of Yeshiva University, have stolen my heart. In celebration of the season, they just brought out a new track for Chanukah, based on Taio Cruz's "Dynamite" and Mike Tompkins' a cappella version. A most worthy addition to the standard repertoire! [via] … [Read more...]