technology -v- culture ... and whatever else is on our minds today

Very good. Very funny. See it.

Is this the inspiration for these guys?

I hope so.

In other words, what’s the value of the cloud when the cost of storage is declining precipitously? Or, conversely, what’s the point in buying lots of storage — however cheap it is — when we all have access to the cloud pretty much whenever and wherever we want?) Last year, my pal Sandy Pearlman and I discussed this during a session at the Future of Music Coalition’s annual Policy Summit in Washington DC.

Below the fold, I’ve posted an essay Sandy wrote to set up the topic, followed by a couple of responses:

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James Luther Dickinson died a few months ago. How did I miss this? The man was a genius, and now I’ll never get to interview him.

Seriously — the man who turned two Alex Chilton records * into masterpieces died, and I didn’t even know.

“Everybody goes as far as they can, they don’t just care/
You’re a wasted face, you’re a sad-eyed laugh, you’re a holocaust”

Goddamn, Jim — rest in peace.

[UPDATE (and the asterisk ***): Plus he produced yet another masterpiece, the one that led me to the Big Star and Chilton stuff.]

… of Bowie, but I read on nonetheless. It’s factually flawed (Spitz calls this the “Event Harmonizer”???), occasionally infuriatingly written (dozens of unclear pronoun antecedents), and highly self-indulgent (the interstitial chapters are about Spitz not-meeting Bowie). But the arc’s compelling, as is the subject.

Someday, Bowie will write his own or authorize a good one. Until then, there’s always this.

I’ve joined a band. It’s good.

My friend Grant, meanwhile, has released a great album with his band.

Whatever the provenance of the phrase, “Rock and Roll is folk music….”, it’s true. Evidence:

Robert Fripp has twice re-written Fleetwood Mac’s masterful instrumental single “Albatross”. First with Daryl Hall (sic) on vocals as “North Star”, then with Adrian Belew (and King Crimson) as “Matte Kudesai”.

(Apologies for the YouTube links with boring video; it’s the easiest method of offering up the songs.)

I’ve done a new video segment for the Bill Moyers Journal blog.

After you watch it, please listen to this.

Whenever I hear Baby Boomers complain that nobody writes good protest songs anymore, I force them to shut up while I recite this gem by my good friend and musical collaborator Guy Crundwell:

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Obviously I’ve been listening to “Under Pressure”. I hadn’t in years, but it started running through my head the other day, so I bought it from iTMS.

And my God, it’s even more fantastic than I remember.

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