(09.14.07) Recommends:

Concert Photography, Vol. 11
The Deadly Syndrome,
Cafe du Nord,
San Francisco, Calif.
09.13.2007

Firstly. We live in a world of boxes. When we come across something new – artists, politicians, athletes, restaurants, job titles, clothing styles, board games, anything really – we must label the new thing and stick it in a familiar box. We are overwhelmed with inputs and therefore we must box. When we vote for a president, we check off the box representing our candidate. When we don't want to commit to action for fear of all the unintended and unending consequences it will bring, we say, You know I really don't want to open Pandora's box here. We label our geniuses and eccentrics as people who Think Outside The Box. We are box people. I get it. I don't like it, but I get it, ya know? Therefore, sadly, but true, a review of the Deadly Syndrome must not be written without mentioning Modest MouseBuilttoSpillWolfParadeTheShinsArcadeFire. We will mention this now so that we can put it away in a box, never to mention it again.

Secondly. The first time I saw this band, the lead singer was wearing what appeared to be an ascot, Fred-from-Scooby-Doo-style. Last night, tucked away in the back corner of the basement of a rock club located in a neighborhood widely recognized as ground zero for Gayness in America, he wore a plain white t-shirt. The lead singer, presumably, does not subscribe to a world of boxes. His sense of style is either cat-like, or I am seriously over-analyzing things here.

Thirdly. Blogs -- if they have not already -- will soon spill enough ink about this band to make Ayn Rand blush. And for good reason. This band is fantastic. They teeter on the brink of losing control only to right the ship the only way a musical ship can reasonably be righted: with a little accordion. So learn for yourself about that which everybody is or soon will be speaking: Go to their myspace and check out their songs. Of late, "I Hope I Become a Ghost," "Emily Paints," and "Heart" have been in heavy rotation. Go to their website and buy their new record. In came out on Tuesday. It comes in a jewel-case, which is more or less a box. And you like boxes, remember?

And now. Some pictures. If you click on them, they get bigger.









Cacophony, Pt. 1:




Wait, is that Sophia Coppola, bottom of the shot, second to the left? Sophia Coppola would totally be into this band. Wait, do you think she'd be into me? No seriously, Sophia Coppola would totally be into me:



Being Comfortable With Your Masculinity, Pt. 1:


Cacophony, Pt. 2:


Being Comfortable With Your Masculinity, Pt. 2:


Reenacting The Parking Lot Drum Circle After Phish, Deer Creek, Fall 1997: So not cool guys. So not indie rock. Our boxes are not sturdy enough to fit your Drum Circles.

(09.10.07) Recommends:

The song "Five and Dime" by Port O'Brien.

Port O'Brien is an East Bay band that I first came across when they opened the second night of the Bright Eyes GAMH shows back in March. At that time, I noted that they have "some sort of nautical roots and hence the lead singer wore some kind of captain's hat." At the time I didn't know the half of it. Apparently every summer the band lives in Alaska and works on a salmon fishing boat. Editor's note: I'm not making this stuff up. On top of the general awesomeness of that story, they blogged this summer's experience. I just stumbled upon the blog recently, and it is totally riveting. I presume that many of you -- like me -- have become totally obsessed with the Discovery Channel show Deadliest Catch, which chronicles life on a crab boat. Those people already completely blow my mind, but thinking that they could just waltz right off the boat and craft perfect songs makes my heart burst with optimism. Well, first, it makes me feel completely inferior as a human being. Then, a close second, it makes my heart burst with optimism.

So I have chosen to point your attention to "Five and Dime" because I remember them playing it live and upon hearing it realizing that this was a band that needed to be known and cherished. But. But. I did not realize just how literally the band has lived those lyrics. Read their blog while listening to this song -- I love how it starts off slow and steady and then at 2:55 gets rollicking -- it's all really just spectacular.

Port O'Brien -- Five and Dime -- mp3.

(09.11.07) Recommends:

We think this Meiko song is a good one to play for today.

(09.09.07) Recommends:

Luna's cover of Paula Abdul's "Straight Up."

We all are into Luna, right? The band Dean Wareham formed after dissolving Galaxie 500. Well the band disbanded late in 2004 but apparently reconvened for the sole purpose of recording perhaps the creepiest indie-rock song I've ever heard. Good job, boys.

Go get freaked out here.

(09.08.07) Recommends:

The Salivating Lymph Nodes.

You are advised to check out their newest EP "Best Regards From Poland" out this week on Screaming Dandelions, Ltd., the seminal underground retro-nouveau punk label. Of course, in order to hear it you'll need to invest in a turntable (about time, homie) as SDL only puts out vinyl (kinda like that pseudo-goth crush of yours sophomore year, but that's another story, inn'nit?). The vinyl is pressed in the last two pews of a converted church in Olso and is only available at 83 rue des Martyrs (so obvious, right?) a small, influential record shop along a long, narrow street in Coizard-Joches, France. The record store does not have a name, and therefore has no name on the storefront, and furthermore it doesn’t have a storefront or even a door for that matter. So, you'll just have to call 01 42 64 45 40 and ask for Oliver (nee Steve, he's an ex-pat and a sell out; total bullshit, I do realize, but what are you gonna do, start shopping at Sam Goodie? Christ.) and he will send somebody to get you. The store is only open on Tuesdays in September from 14:14-14:47 CEST. But don't bother trying to convert that to any time zone in the U.S., because when you actually do the math, it turns out that time doesn't even occur in the U.S. So anyway, enjoy the record, my lovelies. Pitchfork already gave it a 9.7 but the review is only available on its exclusive intranet site, but maybe you know someone who knows someone who knows someone on Oink who can hook you up. Lates.

(09.07.07) Recommends:

Concert Photography, Vol. 10.
Earlier Show:
Okkervil River,
Free In-Store,
Amoeba Music, SF.

Later Show:
The Finches,
Great American Music Hall.
09.06.07

First up yesterday was Okkervil River at Amoeba. Lately I've really been gobbling up their new record, "The Stage Names." You can currently stream the whole thing over at the band's myspace page. So based on that I was very excited for the show. It was better than I even anticipated. Frankly, this band blew me away live, and you must go see them when they come through your town.

First off, I had never been to an Amoeba in-store performance, so I was not sure what to expect w/r/t sound quality. But it turns out that those Amoeba people really know what they're doing because the sound was excellent.

Then, there was the music. They played the new album, so if you were an old school fan maybe this would have been something of a disappointment. But if you were disappointed by this show obviously you are trying too hard at life. Because this band is so amazing live. The lead singer plays each song like he's undergoing an exorcism. Like the song lives somewhere deep within his soul and he must frantically twitch and twitter until he gets that song out of him where it slowly washes over the crowd. By saving himself, he gives us all life. All for free, and at a record shop. It's a good thing, that.





















After having life affirmed at Amoeba, I headed out through the fog slowly enveloping the Haight and made my way over to GAMH to meet up with my friend The Hip Librarian because she had scored an extra ticket to the Finches show. Without even getting into the whole "teaching generations of people how to read, and in so doing spreading civilization's greatest literary accomplishments, and in so doing creating a thoughtful and free-thinking citizenry, and in so doing creating an informed and vibrant and staggeringly accomplished culture" thing, scoring extra tickets to the Finches is reason enough for us to stand up and support librarians and the funding of our libraries. Think about it, folks.

I've blogged about the Finches before. They were every bit as lovely live as they are recorded. The lead singer has such a pure, perfect voice. It's really quite awesome. This was a seated show which created a neat environment. So I didn't want to be That Guy using a flash and ruining the moment. So I just snapped two pics, then sat back, and enjoyed the music. Fun night.





Here's a flavor of the Finches live, from a show last month:

(09.06.07) Recommends:

Okkervil River, Free In-Store Performance, Amoeba Music (SF), Tonight at 6pm.

So the band played last night at the Independent. I'm sure it was a great show. But only suckers pay retail when you can take advantage of the free goodness of an Amoeba in-store performance. God bless San Francisco and its warm embrace of the revolutionary, capitalist-shunning notion of free.

I'll update this space with show pics when I'm back. Booyah.

(09.05.07) Recommends:

A Survey!

Welcome to the first installment of A Survey!, an interactive game that will test your knowledge of things that may or may not have recently happened to us, and a game that, if played correctly and with vigor, certainly has the potential to become our next national dance craze.

The rules of the game are simple. We give you a survey question about something that might have just happened to us. We then give the most compelling reason(s) for believing that the event in question occurred (labeled as "pros") followed by the most compelling reason(s) for believing that we are crazy and are just imagining things (labeled as "cons"). Finally, you give us, in the comments, the likelihood that the event in question actually occurred.

Now, on to the game.

This week's survey:
Did We Stand Behind Brandi Chastain In Line At The Grocery Store Late Last Night?

The Pros:
*We were at the Safeway behind Buck Shaw Stadium, home of the Santa Clara University Lady Bronco Soccer Team!
*Brandi Chastain played soccer at Santa Clara!
*And now lives in Santa Clara!
*With her husband who is the head soccer coach!
*And there is a big tournament this weekend which would explain the need for a late night run to the store to get emergency food to settle those pre-tournament jitters!
*Plus, the woman looked athletic and was wearing clothes that an adult would wear only if she were a former athlete and thus still in athletic-type shape!

The Cons:
*When she finally got through the always long late-night Safeway line and paid for her groceries, she did not celebrate by sliding to her knees and taking off her top, revealing only a black sports bra :(

Now, your turn to answer A Survey! Did We Stand Behind Brandi Chastain In Line At The Grocery Store Late Last Night?

(09.04.07) Recommends:

A Dawn Landes Update.

We were first introduced to Dawn Landes through her Young Folks cover. Today we heard from her again when this track showed up in our inbox. We love our inbox because it can smell purity. Also: because it once contained an email from Jim Myers, better known as George "The Animal" Steele. By that time he had replaced his green tongue turnbuckle eating ways with the life of a born again Christian. He was reluctant to allow us to interview him for a project we were working on. Eventually he stopped returning our emails. But those three email exchanges remain in our Top Twenty Five Email Moments.

Anyway, back to Landes. We really like this track. It's from a previous album of hers. She is releasing a new one in early '08. So the story is still developing.

As for George "The Animal" Steele, we're not sure what he's got on his plate these days. We remain hopeful that eventually he will realize that our project proposal is completely earnest and upon its release will be met with far reaching acclaim. The world we live in is full of the generous and the gentle. What it lacks is a coming of age tale involving many of the mid-80's finest wrestlers. He knows our inbox will always welcome him with open arms.

Editor's Note: You may be wondering why we wrote this post in the first person plural, when there is clearly just one of us. We have no good answers for that. What do you think? Does the first person plural sound more convincing? We think that it might. We might keep this up. Let us know what you think.

Dawn Landes -- Suspicion -- mp3.

George "the Animal" Steele vs. Macho Man Randy Savage (w/ guest appearance by Ricky "the Dragon" Steamboat):

(09.03.07) Recommends:

Andrew Bird, "Scythian Empires," live on WNYC Soundcheck.

Andrew Bird's Armchair Apocrypha must be on everybody's short list for best record of 2007. If it's not on yours, then please throw your list away and start again. I've been listening to it pretty consistently since it came out in March (and blogged about it here, here, and here) although I've particularly had Bird on the brain as of late. The two things that I love most about this record are as follows.

First, it is a record, not just a oddly compiled collection of songs. You put this thing on, and you listen to the whole thing, in order, and every song is perfectly placed, and the thing just flows.

Second, even though the true genius of the record is not fully unleashed unless you listen to it as set forth more fully above, it also has a bunch of killer individual songs that call for careful, individual dissection.

To properly dissect a song, as you must know by now, you first listen to the song on repeat for anywhere between one hour and four weeks, until you have gotten underneath both the words and the music. Second, if the liner notes are provided, of course they must be devoured. Third, if you are in middle school, and are required to do that weird thing where you cover your text books in grocery bag like so then you must scrawl the song lyrics on said cover. Finally, you must find alternative versions of the song to see how the artist interprets the song away from the friendly confines of the record proper.

This all might seem like a quaint exercise in a post-Napster world, but if you, little you, are to understand and fully grasp the brilliance set forth before you, you must follow these instructions with unwavering precision.

Andrew Bird, Scythian Empires, An Applied Case Study.
1. Know the song, love the song: Usually I can only listen to this song a few times a week because as I had yet to tame its brilliance listening to it once inevitably turned into listening to it for four straight hours, which killed the chance of completing whatever task it was that I was procrastinating over by putting on Andrew Bird in the first place. Luckily, I had some time on my hands recently when I made a drive of roughly 350 miles that due to pre-holiday traffic took roughly seven hours to complete. Lesser men might have gone insane. I resolved to get to the bottom of Scythian Empires. And by this I mean, I listened to Scythian Empires. Non-stop. For 350 straight miles. For seven straight hours. I shall know Scythian Empires; Scythian Empires shall know my devotion.

2. Hard copy of the album secured, I got underneath the words. This was actually done while driving. But don't worry, the excess of cars on the road made it very safe for me to attempt the simultaneous reading/driving exercise.

3. I am not in Middle School, so this step does not apply to me, unfortunately. And what a shame. Because to be a middle-schooler, in 2007, stuck amidst war and chaos and corruption and the suburbs, and to walk into Social Studies class with eyes sad, heavy, and knowing, and having the following handwritten on your textbook: "Five day forecast brings black tar rain and hellfire/while handpicked handler's kid gloves tear at the inseams/their Halliburton attache cases are useless/while Scotch-Guard Macintoshes shall be carbonized/now they're offering views of exiting empires/such breathtaking views of Scythian empires..." would be so profound that you'd probably get a scholarship to Sarah Lawrence on the spot.

4. The alternative version. I present you with this below. It's actually an entire in-studio interview and performance, but if you are running short on time, then scroll ahead to 16:16 and listen to the performance of Scythian Empires. This song is so grand and ambitious as it appears on the record, but this version just totally conquers. People! You do not hear songs like this every day. So it is imperative that you listen to this, and support this, and soak it all in; the fate of our culture as one that is generous and fertile and creative may very well rest on your decision.

(09.01.07) Recommends:

Western States Motel.

So, have you ever been in the outside part of a bar, and then when you come back in to pay your tab there is a band playing live in the background, and as you are signing the check, you turn and you see Natalie Portman, and she asks if you know the band, and while asking, she sorta lunges toward you and says, they’ll change your life, I swear?

No? That’s never happened to you? Okay. More or less it’s never happened to me, either. However.

However.

I was out the other night. Out of doors on a warm summer night. And then I came inside the doors. To pay my bar tab which, it should be noted, was a very reasonable amount, because I am a reasonable person and only engage in reasonable behavior, even when the other youth of the city are bursting with energy and virility and irrationality. I, for the record, am reasonable. As are those with whom I hang out at these bars on these warm summer nights.

And as I was signing that bar tab...and heard that music...I turned my head around...and looked at the band on the stage...but first I picked my chin off of the floor, where it had been resting in amazement.

After frantically running – literally, running – around the bar, trying to figure out who these songsters were, somebody at the merch table informed me: Western States Motel.

I saw the band perform threes songs – five, tops. And by the end, I declared it the best show I had seen in the last six months. Live, they were this rollicking alt country band, dressed in sharp brown rockabilly suits. Possibly the suits were brown. After all, I’m mostly blind, so I’m more or less guessing at the color. But the point remains: the band was phenomenal and I decided I would pick up their record the next day.

It turns out their record is completely different than their live show. Much poppier. And after one spin I was thinking it must have been the alcohol that made the band sound so good. But I kept listening and then it hit me: It turns out that even the album is phenomenal. It’s like a mixture of the Shins, and Elliot Smith, and a host of those cosmic-Americana bands from Los Angeles, like The Elected (blogged about here), Irving (blogged about here), Beechwood Sparks.

So, here’s the deal. Go to their myspace and give them a listen. If the sound isn’t working for you, rip that computer out of the wall, and put it in your car. This record comes alive on the road. This works particularly well if you live near a winding highway that dramatically overlooks the Pacific Ocean. If you don’t have that handy, perhaps you have a large lake (natural or manmade is okay). If no lake, perhaps there is a neighborhood pool that you could drive around while blasting this (don’t forget the zinc oxide for your nose, bacon slice!). If no neighborhood pool, then at least turn your TV to Mtv, to one of those dramas like The Hills or Laguana Beach. Then turn the volume off, and pump up Western States Motel. Because this music will be featured on these shows very very soon.

And regardless of the virtues of those shows, this music needs to be listened by many, many people.

(08.26.07) Recommends:

Kitchen Clam Bake!

What better way to get the taste out of my mouth from yesterday's unmitigated disaster then to have a tasty dinner. The Food Network has been hyping the Clam Bake lately, so we turned to everybody's favorite secret crush, Rachael Ray, for a recipe. We modified things a bit here and there, but still hope we did Ra Ra proud.

First up, a 16-quart stock pot:



Then, a little of Ra Ra's favorite magic sauce:



What goes well with a big pot and oil? If you said, "plate full of andouille and kielbasa," congratulations, you are correct:



Potatoes, in the hashed manner. This was the most questionable move of the evening, and I take full responsibility. Ra Ra (stop shaking your head out there; my use of this nickname should not make you nervous and/or sad) called for a "16-ounce bag frozen diced hash browns." But it's unclear whether this is what she had in mind:



One large onion, chopped:


Action Shot!



What form! What fingers! Have you ever seen 4 ribs celery, chopped, with such finesse? No, the answer to that question is no.



Seems like a good point to start filling up that big pot:



Stirring occasionally the potatoes, onions, celery, bay leaf, salt and pepper and:



Thyme. We've only just begun, but it's already starting to look like Grandma's Famous Slaw:



Now that you mention slaw, next up is four ears of corn, complete with caterpillar. No really, that little curled up booger you see right below the tip of the earn of corn isn't a booger after all. It is a caterpillar. Now that's organic!



Action Shot!



When I spy caterpillars in my corn I act swiftly and without mercy. No, No, I'm not a hand model. Yes, yes, I know it's a waste of god-given talent that I'm not.

How do you like me now:



Note: The next picture is probably NSFW, so scroll accordingly.

Naked shrimp:


Now all dressed up, but only one place to go:


Action Shot! with chicken stock:



Action Shot! with tomatoes:



Action Shot! with salt:


Note to self: no bearded clam jokes, no bearded clam jokes, no bearded clam jokes...



Mixing muscles and clams:


No need resorting to 16-year old humor when you've got this staring back at you:



Wait, it gets better:



Put the top on and wait about ten minutes. Take the top off, and through the fog we get...



...Jackpot! Good golly, that is a serious pot of food:


Add some hot sauce to taste:



And you're left with a bowl of nearly unbearably awesome goodness:



No need to risk playing Scrabble on an empty stomach:



14.7 seconds later:



Discarded shells in the foreground. "Goonies" in the background. How long can the good life last?



Well, through the magic of refrigeration, I'm willing to bet that the good life can last a few more days:

(08.25.07) Recommends:

Remaining Professional While Flying Your "Indie" Flag.

Okay, so I've got a rant pent up in me. I don't like to use this space to be negative as I prefer to focus on things that inspire me. But today I had a pretty horrible experience, and because I presume that I was the target audience of the event, some constructive criticism might be useful.

So. Today I headed out to the 2007 Bay Area Indie Music Festival. The gist of the festival was simple and enticing: 20 up-and-coming Bay Area bands on two stages from noon to 10pm, all for ten bucks. Sounds great, right? That's what I thought, too.

I rolled up to the venue in Martinez a little after noon. No band anywhere in sight. Like one sound dude. I thought this looked awkward, but I gave it the benefit of the doubt, after all it was a beautiful day and I was thinking I was in for a cool afternoon of music. But the minutes kept passing without a noticeable sign of getting the festival started. So I went and used the journalism skills I gained in high school. What I found out wasn't hopeful: the sound crew had apparently quit the night before, and they were also now down to just one stage. By 1pm there was still no sign of progress, so I left to explore Martinez. The highlight of the afternoon was walking around downtown Martinez in a KU shirt and running into a KU alumni and chatting for about ten minutes about Lawrence.

I arrived back at the venue at about 2:15 to hear the last few songs of the first band of the day. Now, using the word "Indie Music" in the name of your festival is a gutsy move because if the music turns out to be crap then lots of people like me will think you've used the word to try to get people like me to give you my money. And that's pretty obnoxious, right? So, this first band was completely completely cheesy. Something I would expect to see playing at a barbeque joint in Kansas City on a Thursday night. Completely cheesy rock 'n roll blues blah blah blah music.

The second band had a lead singer who was desperately trying to look like Pete Wentz. Pete fucking Wentz? Give me a break. Consulting my show program, it looked like anywhere between 1/5 and 1/3 of the bands had lead singers desperate to look like Pete Wentz. My god. Is Fall Out Boy considered indie music? Last time I checked they were considered, er, "shitty music." That is, unless you're like a 16-year old girl. Attention Organizers of the Bay Area Indie Music Fest: are you trying to go after people like me, or 16-year old girls? Here's the thing: 16-year old girls have every right to have a music scene that they can get behind. But so many of the bands on the venue were billed as, e.g., selling out the Independent, or selling out Bottom of the Hill. These are 21+ venues, though, so it must be that you are catering to fans like me, right? So then, why all the FOB lead singers? I don't like FOB. None of my friends like FOB. Nobody with whom I've seen a show in the bay area likes FOB. So what was the point of the festival?

The organizers might say, well, if you go to so many indie shows in the bay area, then you have no doubt dealt with long delays before the headliner came on stage. And this is a valid point. But I'm not at a rock club. I'm at an amphitheater in Martinez. It's a hot Saturday. We live in the Bay Area, which means there are almost limitless opportunities to spend my day. So have the decency to get on the PA and explain to me the hold up.

Either way, if you are aiming for the teen crowd, or for me, couldn't you have been professional enough to get somebody on the PA to explain to the crowd why everything was so damn behind schedule?

So, after the second crappy band of the day I went exploring around the venue. I picked up a $5 plastic cup of Bud Lite, apparently the Official Beer of Indie Music. I tried to drown my sorrow over this experience in that 8 ounce cup of beer. Is "indie music" really this lame? Is it just "Bay Area" "indie music" that is this lame?

I consider "indie rock" to be the current musical epoch in which we find ourselves. It supplanted "alternative rock/grunge rock" which supplanted "hair metal" as the previously prevailing musical epochs. Now, the "alternative rock" epoch officially became irrelevant when bands like Stone Temple Pilots got big, because they were like knock-offs of the bands like Nirvana who defined "alternative rock." Nirvana itself knocked off a lot of music, but managed to be creative in its derivativeness. Meanwhile shitty bands like Stone Temple Pilots were just derivative without adding anything interesting to the mix.

Are we now at the tail end of the "indie rock" epoch? Because the bands I saw today were just rehashing played stuff, and it was kind of embarrassing and sad. I sat through one more band, some screamo, emocore, yadda yadda whatever stuff. By that time it was 4pm. Three bands had played by 4pm, and 20 were on the bill. Not wanting to camp out in Martinez until Wednesday afternoon, I left.

The whole ride home, I listened to my new Meiko CD, wishing I was back watching her play at the Hotel Cafe in Los Angeles. To recap this week's culture war:

Los Angeles: 1
Bay Area: 0

End Note: The festival organizers should not put on a 2nd Annual event until they (a) fully articulate the point of having this festival; and (b) are professional enough to pull off something like this.

(08.24.07) Recommends:

A Meiko Update.

So I headed down to Los Angeles earlier this week to take in two Meiko shows. I've posted about her here and here. She is in the midst of a Wednesday residency at the Hotel Cafe. And this week, she also had an early Tuesday show. Early like 6pm. And with traffic the way it is in Los Angeles, there were probably 25 people at her Tuesday show. But that didn't hold her back at all. Meiko was meant for the stage; she's a natural born rock star. She is so at ease up there. She is very warm, and funny, and tells funny stories, and comes up with funny nicknames (example: calling her trumpet player Donald Trump-et). She has such a distinct voice: she's from Georgia, and the way she plays with the Southern accent just kills.

At this point, I should also gush about the Hotel Cafe. It is one of the coolest venues I've been to. It is what I picture of a music club in LA: a totally non-nondescript front, you have to enter through a back alley, to get into the club you have to walk through heavy curtains, inside there is a front bar room, then a door that leads to a very intimate music room that comfortably fits probably 300.

I wish I had pictures to share of the shows, but they requested no flash photography, and it was just too dark for me get anything worth posting.

Anyway, both shows were fantastic. If you are in or around LA this Wednesday, she has her final Wednesday date before she embarks on a month long tour across the country opening for Brett Dennen.

Finally, I've been getting a ton of hits from people looking for a "reasons to love you" mp3. I briefly thought about putting my copy of her CD up on yousendit, but I quickly realized that I couldn't do that even if I wanted to, because free music is cool and all, but making somebody else's music free isn't up to me. At any rate, Meiko is streaming her whole album (minus an awesome hidden song), at her website. So all of you looking for here stuff click here immediately.

(08.15.07) Recommends:

The Moth.

I first learned of the Moth when This American Life recently aired a segment. Not sure how many amazing things I've learned over the years from TAL, but I gotta say, if you're not being enriched by it, please go here and start.

So, The Moth. Here's the intro from the website:

What is The Moth?

The Moth, a not-for-profit storytelling organization, was founded in New York ... [by someone] ... who wanted to recreate in New York the feeling of sultry summer evenings ... where he and a small circle of friends would gather to spin spellbinding tales on his friend Wanda's porch. After moving to New York, George missed the sense of connection he had felt sharing stories with his friends back home, and he decided to invite a few friends over to his New York apartment to tell and hear stories. Thus the first "Moth" evening took place in his living room. Word of these captivating story nights quickly spread, and The Moth moved to bigger venues in New York.

There have apparently been hours upon hours of amazing storytelling done through the Moth. Unfortunately, either somebody did not have the good sense to record all of them, or the website is hopelessly underutilized, because there are only a handful of stories you can hear on the website. But they're all worth a listen. Especially "Don't Fall in Love With Your Monkey" told by Ari Handel. This is the incredibly sweet recounting of a Neuroscience PhD's relationship with his research monkey.

Those of you who know me, know I have a sweet spot in my heart for Neuroscience PhD's who have tales of research monkeys. Those people will make the world a better place both for their research and for their story telling ability. So go give it a listen.

(08.12.07) Recommends:

Read All About It.

This small article appearing in the most recent New Yorker looks at Rupert Murdoch's purchase of Dow Jones Inc. (and it's crown jewel, the Wall Street Journal). I guess I've had journalism on the brain lately.

This article is obviously conclusory in that frustrating fashion of many New Yorker articles (Rupert Murdoch has killed the WSJ! before the first article with him at the helm has been published). However it's also brilliantly succinct -- another hallmark of the magazine -- and nicely sets the stage for what I hope will be more in-depth and nuisanced looks at the current state of journalism in our country.

I'd probably be overstating things to suggest that this issue might be something debated in the upcoming presidential election. But it's hard not to notice that the current state of journalism is a microcosm of the current state of our culture.

The story features the convergence of technology, law, politics, and capitalism.

There is so much about which to be hopeful: more sources of information than any other time in the history of mankind and available more conveniently than any other time.

But there is also so much about which to be cautious.

I think it's legitimate to be cautious about the role that profit margins and bottom lines play in the definition and distribution of "news." I tend to see journalism as the free market of ideas. So in the end, I believe that the market will always create a source that focuses on more than simply hype, PR, celebrities, and the weather. But quote unquote Serious Journalism is time consuming and expensive.

Therefore, I think that it is legitimate to be cautious about the way Wall Street values things. Wall Street hammers newspaper stock prices and we're told over and over again that newspapers are dying dinosaurs. Yet, from that PBS series I learned that the LA Times was doing $1bn in revenue, $200mm in profit, 20% profit margins and everyone concedes that these are really strong numbers. And meanwhile firms on Wall Street are at best hemorrhaging and at worst blowing up because they were investing in instruments that were heretofore completely incorrectly valued. Are we sure that the LA Times is a bad investment now?

I think that it is legitimate to be cautious about the role that digital technology will play going forward.

On one hand, there is no question that digital technology allows for some awesome things. Take The New York Times online for example. It features longer, investigative pieces. Shorter, right to the point news pieces. Compelling editorial writers. All pretty standard newspaper stuff. But then it has adopted to the net and features blogs, video-journalism, and podcasts and audio-journalism (in fact, Backstory might be my favorite part of the Times; my only wish is that they'd keep the Backstory link more up-to-date.). It's one-stop-shopping for overburdened consumers of news.

On the other hand, I think that digital technology has the potential to turn the Copyright Act into the Internal Revenue Code, with arbitrary laws and distinctions, and reading more like a negotiated contract than a principled legal document. And the result of this is clear: people are becoming increasing cynical about copyright law (it seems like some people believe that copyright law is a weapon solely created by the "RIAA" and wildly swung around in an attempt to kill us all rather than something that was expressly recognized by the federal Constitution). I think this is a very bad thing for both journalism and our culture as a whole.

I don't want to go on too long, but I think there's a lot to unpack here. I'd love to hear what other people think about this.

(08.11.07) Recommends:

Children's Health Insurance Bill Provides a Case Study.

(08.10.07) Recommends:

Less, Less, Less! More, More, Moore!

(08.04.07) Recommends:

News War.

So this is an old story, but I just re-watched the series last night, and figured I should pass it along. News War is a four-part series produced by PBS that takes a glimpse at how journalism fits in with current politics and capitalism. It's as thoughtful a take on these issues as I've seen. I think that Part III is particularly strong and if you are interested in the future of journalism it's a must see. Here's Part III's decription from the series website:

In part three of "News War," entitled "What's Happening to the News,"FRONTLINE examines the mounting pressure for profits faced by America's network news divisions and daily newspapers, as well as growing challenges from cable television and the Internet. Bergman talks to network executives, newspaper editors and publishers, bloggers, Wall Street analysts and key players at Google and Yahoo! about the battle for market dominance in a rapidly changing world.

Bergman examines one of the biggest challenges facing the traditional news media: As their core audience grows older, the number of viewers and readers who want their news in a conventional format is shrinking. According to a study by New York University, a majority of Americans under age 25 get their news online or from programs like Comedy Central's The Daily Show. "To the extent that people look to us as a source of news," says David Javerbaum, The Daily Show's executive producer, "that is 100 percent indicative of other people's failure and not our success." While the broadcast news networks still command the largest share of the market, they are losing viewers and advertising revenue to cable.

To stop this slide in ratings, network executives are making changes that have rankled some top news anchors. When ABC executives proposed bringing in Late Show with David Letterman from CBS to replace Nightline on ABC, host Ted Koppel decided not to renew his contract. "To the extent that we are now judging journalism by the same standards that we apply to entertainment," says Koppel, "that may prove to be one of the greatest tragedies in the history of American journalism."

"What's Happening to the News" also goes inside the embattled newsroom of the Los Angeles Times, one of the few U.S. newspapers still covering major national stories. After his newsroom had already lost hundreds of jobs, managing editor Dean Baquet was told to lay off more reporters by the paper's owner, the Tribune Company. He refused and was fired. "The people who own newspapers … are beholden to shareholders," Baquet tells FRONTLINE. "They want for the paper to be highly profitable, and sometimes that view of what a newspaper is supposed to be and my view, which is that a newspaper is a public trust, sometimes they come into conflict." Charles Bobrinskoy, vice chairman at top Tribune investor Ariel Capital Management in Chicago, says the L.A. Times needs to rethink its mission. "There is a role for probably three national newspapers: The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and USA Today. Each has its own niche; all three are national newspapers. We don't think there's any demand for a fourth."

An even greater challenge to both newspapers and broadcast networks is the growing power of the Internet as a news distribution platform, pulling consumers and advertisers away from more traditional media. Jeff Fager, executive producer of 60 Minutes, talks about CBS's partnership with Yahoo! News. "We haven't seen the model for how broadcast journalism is going to end up on the Internet," he says. "But … it has to go there. I mean, you don't see anybody between 20 and 30 getting their news from the evening news; you see them getting it online."

But Internet news aggregators like Yahoo! and Google say that they are not in the business of creating content, relying instead on traditional news-gathering organizations. "We're in fact critically dependent upon the success of these newspapers," says Google CEO Eric Schmidt, referring to the Los Angeles Times and others. "We don't write the content. We're not in the content business. So anything that screws up their economics, that causes them to get rid of reporters, is a really bad thing."

If not newspapers, who will create content for the Internet news aggregators? Markos Moulitsas writes Daily Kos, one of the country's most popular blogs, which reportedly receives 3 to 5 million visitors per week. "People want to be part of the media," Moulitsas tells FRONTLINE. "They don't want to sit there and listen anymore. They're too educated. They're taught … to be go-getters and not to sit back and be passive consumers. And the traditional media is still predicated on the passive consumer model -- you sit there and watch."

But is this journalism? Former Los Angeles Times editor John Carroll worries that without the investigative skills of newspaper reporters, an important element of newsgathering may be lost. "I estimate … that 85 percent of the original reporting that's done in the United States is done by newspapers. They're the people who are going out and knocking on doors and rummaging through records and covering events and so on. And most of the other media that provide news to people are really recycling news that's gathered by newspapers."

(08.03.07) Recommends:

Two houses down.

Senate Passes Children’s Health Bill, 68-31.

(08.02.07) Recommends:

One house down.

House Passes Children's Health Plan 225-204. This first step is expected. The Senate is expected to approve a plan next week. And the president is expected to veto anything by the program's Sept. 30 expiration date.

Prediction: Bush's stubbornness is paving the way for an election time disaster for fellow Republicans.

(08.01.07) Recommends:

Ted talks.

I was first exposed to the TED Conference at some point over the past 18 months. It stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It's held annually in Monterey, Ca. Here's a description of TED, from the official website:

Our mission: Spreading ideas.

We believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and ultimately, the world. So we're building here a clearinghouse that offers free knowledge and inspiration from the world's most inspired thinkers, and also a community of curious souls to engage with ideas and each other. Over time, you'll see us add talks and performances from other events, and solicit submissions from you, as well. This site, launched April 2007, is an ever-evolving work in progress, and you're an important part of it.

The TED Conference, held annually in Monterey, is still the heart of TED. More than a thousand people now attend — indeed, the event sells out a year in advance — and the content has expanded to include science, business, the arts and all the big global issues facing our world. Over four days, 50 speakers each take an 18-minute slot, and there are many shorter pieces of content, including music, performance and comedy. There are no breakout groups. Everyone shares the same experience. It shouldn't work, but it does. It works because all of knowledge is connected. Every so often it makes sense to emerge from the trenches we dig for a living, and ascend to a 30,000-foot view, where we see, to our astonishment, an intricately interconnected whole.

The Conference has a website that hosts full clips of seemingly every speaker. Since discovering the conference -- and the website -- it has quickly become a time killer. I've spent countless hours devouring these speeches and still leave inspired after every visit. The topics are all over the map, from Steve Levitt talking about gangs, to Tony Robbins calling out Al Gore's 2000 campaign to Al Gore's face (yes, it's weird to me that Tony Robbins spoke at this thing; we can all agree that Tony Robbins is pretty much a bafoon, but this 90 second take on Gore is actually stunning and makes me think that this Tony Robbins character is a lot more genius than I realize. Skip to 5:07 in the clip), to 14-year old Jennifer Lin doing jaw-dropping improvisational work on the piano.

If you have a few hours to kill, do us both a favor and check out some Ted Talks.