Triley60's Geek Chart … [Read more...]

You can see, then, why I find the AMS resolution so pompous. The society condemns outlandish abuses of music and people in remote prisons while it undermines the role of its membership at home. In doing so, the AMS parades in lockstep with other contemporary institutions, for which Enlightenment rhetoric masks the disfigurations of capitalism, and big, idealistic statements muffle the groans of social division and injustice. Still, it's worth asking how people who teach, perform, and study the most harmonious of arts can generate so much … [Read more...]

The ultimate goal for music technology, "the celestial jukebox," is going to be reached very soon. That term has been floating around for a decade or more, but what it comes down to is total access, anywhere and at any time, to any music ever recorded. That's not just the 10 million songs presently in the iTunes sStore, but the really long tail: the forgotten archives of sound-recording history, the exploding amateur library that MySpace Music and YouTube have made possible--everything. The celestial jukebox won't just be a listening interface; … [Read more...]

A virus is currently spreading among today's young people. Like swine flu, it has made life extremely unpleasant for many, but unlike the H1N1 strain, it is exclusively passed between old and young. If left unchecked, it could have the far-­reaching effect of rendering an entire generation between ages 20 and 40 culturally stagnant. It can't be prevented with a face mask -- although earplugs would be a step in the right direction -- but what's most tragic is that the young are enthusiastically welcoming it into their homes, cars and iPods. … [Read more...]

You young'uns may not remember, but Sinead caused a scandal on SNL back in 1992, and got booed off Bob Dylan's stage two weeks later, all for confronting the "real enemy" as an abused Irish Catholic. It's time for a major essay on how right she was and how oblivious Dylan remains. … [Read more...]

… [Read more...]

"If you get quoted in The Wall Street Journal, you might get rich. If you get quoted in Rolling Stone, you might get laid." From Dan Baum's New Yorker screed, first on tweeter, now at DanBaum.com. … [Read more...]

Science and technology columnist Dave Brooks of the Nashua Telegraph has come up with a novel approach to generating material for his GraniteGeek blog on the paper's website: He's handing over partial control to the University of New Hampshire news service. The publicity organization will "post items about science and social science research at the university...directly on GraniteGeek whenever it wants (probably once a week), and I have no control over it," Brooks writes. "That's something that would have been unthinkable not long ago." It's … [Read more...]

"Star Trek" was shot for Desilu Productions, on the lot its founders, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, bought from RKO Radio Pictures, the prolific studio that had made "King Kong," "Citizen Kane," the Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers musicals and countless B pictures like "I Walked With a Zombie." In time, the series moved to Paramount and if it seemed as though Kirk and his crew were venturing from old movie to old movie, Roddenberry and his crew were traveling literally from old-movie set to old-movie set. "The majority of story premises ...can be … [Read more...]

… [Read more...]