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05 May 2010 11:53

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Biz: The Washington Post could sell Newsweek. We blame this cover.

  • It’s a rough time to be a weekly periodical. And with losses spanning over years, The Washington Post may be ready to let go of its main competitor to Time. Alas, poor Newsweek. You were like a younger brother to Time. We remember how we felt the first time we heard “Me and Julio Down By the Schoolyard” and heard your name mentioned in it. It made us proud. It wasn’t as cool as “On the Cover of the Rolling Stone,” but Paul Simon knew the score. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

11 Jul 2009 17:00

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Music: Our Saturday Mixtape gives into our mopey strummer addiction

  • 1. Before Paul Simon got countermelodies and drum backing, he was a busker in England who happened to find himself in a recording studio, doing lo-fi versions of songs that everyone now knows by heart, such as this ragged version of “Kathy’s Song.”
    2. Jandek will never be as successful as Jeff Tweedy. He spent three decades hiding from the world, releasing rickety avant-strangeness and getting mentioned in the same sentences as Roky Erickson and The Shaggs, only to finally play in public in the last couple of years. Jeff Tweedy, whose band’s most recent album debuted in the Billboard 200’s top five, does us a favor and makes “Crack a Smile” pretty and palatable.
    3. After posting about Leonard Cohen yesterday, it got us to thinking – which song of his would never get covered on “American Idol”? “Chelsea Hotel No. 2” fits the bill: It’s pretty, but about sordid hotel room encounters with famous singers like Janis Joplin.
    4. You can’t have a list of mopey strummers without Elliott Smith. You just can’t. His early albums use their lo-fi setting to focus directly on the darkness in the words. “Condor Ave.,” off “Roman Candle,” set Smith’s template.
    5. The Tallest Man on Earth pretty much kills this song. The Swede wails at his guitar, putting everything he has into being the best Bob Dylan acolyte he can, and gets closer than most, especially on “This Wind.”source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

22 Jun 2009 15:02

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Biz, Tech: Why is Kodak getting rid of Kodachrome film? Progress.

  • 70% of the company’s profit comes from really good digital picture-taking technology source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
 
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