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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If Hillary is inevitable, and she wins, we’ll end up having had at least 24 years of heads of state from just two families. Does anyone else find a rerun of the intra-Plantagenet rivalry a bit out-of-character for an alleged democratic republic?

I’ve been slow with this post: The repaired phone came back, no problem, and has been working fine. The only irksome thing is this: When my wife had a similar problem, only worse — her whole screen went dead — and brought her unit to the Soho Apple Store, she was simply handed a new iPhone. No loaner, no fee. Grrrr.

I now have a loaner iPhone from Apple — an 8GB model with “AppleCare Service” embossed on the back. So far, I’d say Apple’s performance has been decent, but far from exceptional.

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Saturday was the warmest day in New York since I bought my iPhone. It was also the day when my iPhone developed a dead zone.

That means that right now, my iPhone is one step away from being a $500 brick. I can receive calls — if the touchscreen is locked, that is — but I can’t make them. Nor can I send SMS, check my email, or use the Safari browser.

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Cross-posted at the Bill Moyers Journal blog.

Imagine climbing a hundred-foot radio tower in the howling headwinds of a Category 3 hurricane so that you can stay on the air and keep your neighbors informed as catastrophe bears down. Or remaining at your post, on the mic and on the air, as floodwaters engulf the radio studio. Or pouring every cent of your income into the station to say on the air the aftermath, even though you’re living in a FEMA-issue trailer because you’ve lost your home and everything in it.

I can’t. But Brice Phillips has done every one of those things. And that’s why he’s one of the most remarkable people I’ve ever met, and an inspiration to those of us who believe that community radio has the power to change lives — and save lives.

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I’ve neglected this for too long. Time to start posting again. Especially since we may get some incoming….

Calatrava’s fourth design iteration for the new Chicago spire has been approved by the city. It reminds me that the first time I ever saw a skyscraper was in Chicago. Bending my neck back and staring and getting vertigo type of skyscraper. Wow.

That’s my friend Ron Pyke’s variant punchline for one of history’s great anti-jokes.*

This is apropos of the ongoing New Yorker Cartoon Anti-Caption Contest, which is significantly funnier than the real thing.

* Though I remain a passionate fan of John Cleese’s Frenchmen-in-a-bar-with-a-camel-bartender classic, but I can’t seem to find it online.