Half the time when I'm talking about music with my friend Jeff Wong, mention of some album will elicit the response, "I got turned on that when Elvis Costello covered/mentioned that." Okay Jeff, here are 500 records recommended by EC—how many do you know?
<I>The Wall Street Journal</I> ran a DRM debate between the MPAA's Fred Attaway and Brooklyn Law School's Wendy Seltzer that is a thing of beauty. Attaway calls DRM "the key to consumer choice."
The EFF's Fred von Lohmann posts about the Consumer Electronics Association's (CEA) new ad reminding Congress that the RIAA;s (and MPAA's) high dudgeon over copying is nothing new—and that such hysteria has been historically short sighted.
Overheard (coming out of mine and other nearby mouths) at a tavern in Brooklyn:
<b><i>Country International Records</b></i><br>
Starfish Records<br>
The Beeb is canceling <I>Top of the Pops</I>. Not that I ever watched it, but it's one of those things like the Grand Canyon that always seemed like it was eternal.
Friends like John Marks actually send me stuff like this John Derbyshire <I>National Review</I> book review of Nicholas Wade's <I>Before the Dawn</I>. Derbyshire's essay is argumentative and intriguing—the very qualities that Wade seems to have mastered in his book.
On his website, Neil Gaiman pulls off the difficult accomplishment of making me want to read Alan Moore's <I>Lost Girls</I> in a longer version of an essay published in <I>Publisher's Weekly</I>.
IBM has announced a "philantropic cultural heritage initiative" that will allow folks to virtually tour the 800-building Forbidden City complex using immersive cell-chip technology developed for gaming.
