Wes Phillips

Over at Doug Ramsey's always worth checking-out Rifftides, Randy Sandke offers a personal remembrance of Michael Brecker. Not your usual hagiography.

"You better not lie," the song tells us, but flying reindeer and a benevolent fat guy in a red suit is hardly an advertisement for truthiness.

Of course, if you have to explain it, it must not be that good.

I was happily reading Sasha Frere-Jones' bloghttp://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/sashafrerejones">blog; about CMJ, when he dropped this linkbomb on me, asking, "If you do not think there is any drumming in this cover of 'Satisfaction,' watch Björk’s hips. Also, a question for physicists, audio engineers, and clerics: how can Björk sing so loudly and not drown out Polly Jean Harvey, even though Harvey never raises her voice particularly high? And a question for music lovers everywhere: why has this song inspired so many good covers?"

John Fogerty aside, I bet Saul Zaentz can dance. It seems like he can pretty much do anything he sets his mind to.

Who has the best hearing?

The Fraunhofer Institute is working on an active soundproof window that's "particularly effective at frequencies of 50–1000Hz." I want one now—but it'll be four years before they make it to market.