Was it really just last week that the RIAA won its first major file sharing lawsuit? I think that history will remember the victory as the apex of the industries clever strategy of suing its customers. In the eight long days since the verdict, it’s been nothing but bad news for the major labels. It’s almost like the verdict put a curse on the entire industry.

During our podcast a few weeks back, we raised a few eyebrows when we suggested that it wouldn’t be long before major recording artists began self-releasing their albums. This past week we saw a major act do just that, as Radiohead began selling its latest collection of songs directly to consumers through the band’s website.

Can one band bring down an entire industry? Hardly. But Radiohead isn’t alone.

This week we also learned that Oasis, Charlatans, and Jamiroquai each plan to give their next album away for free. Charlatans manager, Alan McGee, has determined that the bands will make more money from concert tickets and merchandise sales when fans can freely download the latest release. That sort of thinking makes Radiohead’s name-your-own-price approach look somewhat stodgy (although, Thom Yorke apparently hates touring, so it’s not like Radiohead is looking to make a living doing stadium tours).

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So, yeah, here’s how it rolls. Get to the office, light up, boys from down the hall gather for a meeting, light up and pour a stiff one (meetings!). Lunch? Sure, make it a three martini deal, linger over cigarettes. Afternoon meeting — let’s smoke the time away. Post-meeting meeting? Two fingers of whiskey. Minimum.

And dinner? Well, sure, the wife’s at home cooking up something that starts with casserole and ends with cholesterol, but there’s this girl here and it’s the city and why not? Stay in town, drink until walking isn’t an option — though driving, that’s another question — and break most of the major wedding vows.

Mad Men, an AMC original series, is like a glimpse into a past I almost know. Like my peers, I grew up with a pastel-tinted view of “history” — Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley. The 50s were a rockin’, rollin’ time, but, oh boy!, nothing really bad happened. Mr. Cunningham was eternally faithful to Mrs. Cunningham. Even as the series edged into the 60s, there were no worries. As long as the Fonz was the worst kid in town, nothing bad could happen.
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Sometimes it’s really difficult to choose a topic for “That’s What I Like.” But not this time.

Yesterday, Rox & I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary, and there isn’t a thing on the gods’ green earth that I love more than her.

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If I haven’t already secured my place in geekdom, this should do the trick. I’ve recently discovered the wonderful world of comic books. And my favorite place to get my fix is- Things From Another World.

I stumbled across their site when I was searching for an easy way to get Buffy Season Eight, which, by the way, is really good. The site is easy to search, you can sign up for their Watchdog email alerts (which I use all the time), they have a subscription service, and they carry a large selection of comics, graphic novels, dvds, collectibles, etc. Everything the comic book geek could possibly want.

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Today’s missive will be necessarily brief as I am simultaneously running an international conference, an exhibition, a concert, and a reception this evening at USC. As I was standing in the shower thinking last night about what to write, I remembered how my dear aunt Kathy sent me an email a few weeks ago that promised, get this, that if I used a new beta version of a Microsoft-AOL email program, Bill Gates would pay me a nice little chunk o’ money. XANADU! Where do I sign up?

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I’m not a wine snob. I don’t feel the need to discuss vintage discrepancies or the loaminess of the terroir. It’s just that there are few things as pleasurable as finding a truly great wine. There are some objective truths to a great wine but like all arts, it’s largely a subjective exercise of the senses. Above all else, it fills one with a sense of wonderment as you recognize its endless possibilities. In other words, it’s just so cool.

What makes a wine great can be debated ad nauseam (please, no more about the tannic structure or I will have to get medieval on your %$#) Yet, I find that amidst all the clammer, there is that constant refrain of somethingness, for lack of a better word. In itself that somethingness is indescribable, you just know that it’s there. It’s the a-ha moment.

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Unless your name is Elton John, we all pretty much have our own personal reasons why we love the internet. For proof, try to find someone who has a set of bookmarks even remotely similar to your own. They are the digital equivalent of snowflakes. But one myth that needs to be shot down is the “internet is for lazy people” canard. The internet certainly does not make you any lazier than you were in the first place. It’s always easier to apportion blame on something that can’t argue back. In fact, the internet can inspire you to be less lazy, while saving you a lot of time, money and hassle too.

Unable to sit still for too long, I probably suffer from a physical equivalent of ADD. I gotta move. And as much as I love my house, it’s really there to eat, sleep, put the kids to bed and watch the occasional movie or baseball game. (Which, by the way, I consider active activities. Thanks Netflix, Blockbuster and DirecTV.) After all, life is a collection of experiences and if you like to get out and take charge of those experiences, the internet is your friend. Your big, wise, all-knowing friend.

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Is there a beverage that has had more influence on society than coffee? Well, maybe beer — but there’s a reason why people don’t describe themselves as Beer Achievers.

Coffee is the ultimate performance enhancing drug. Without a fully caffeinated work force the wheels of capitalism would fall off. Without coffee we would have no software — at least no good software. We probably wouldn’t even have the Internets.

One thing’s for sure, without coffee there would be no Internet coffee shops.

I came to coffee relatively late in life. I blame my grandparents who were both Sanka drinkers. Instant coffee just won’t do. And decafe is out of the question. What’s the point? You might as well drink non-alcoholic beer.

I started guzzling coffee on a regular basis shortly after starting my first job out of college. The job paid peanuts and the hours were long, but the coffee was free. Eventually I dumped the job, but I kept the coffee habit.

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You have to understand: I think I’m one of the lucky ones, maternally speaking. Somehow, I ended up with one of those mothers who is far cooler than I’ll ever be. That being said, a girl has to assert her individuality. For example, when faced with the chance to buy an orange skirt — especially when her mother says, “You can’t buy that. It’s ugly.*” — she’ll buy the orange skirt.

And when her mother says, “What are you listening to? That woman sounds like she’s in labor.”, you pretty much know that you’ve found your favorite singer ever. Which is really good because if I recall correctly, my mother’s, shall we say?, complaint came on the B-side of Radio Ethiopia. You know what I mean. Though, in all honesty, it could have happened sometime in the midst of “Land”. I was totally wearing out the grooves on that album** during the time in question.

Heck, maybe it was Easter. I’ve always had a soft spot for that one.
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Let’s get a few things out of the way first: Barry Bonds is an asshole. Barry Bonds probably took some kind of steroids that are undetectable by any current tests.

And I don’t give a shit about either one of those things.

A lot of people hate Barry Bonds for taking those steroids, but a lot of people hated him long before that — back before when he was stealing the 500 bases and amassing all of those Gold Gloves.

Do you wonder what the hell fans of the San Francisco Giants are thinking of by still supporting Bonds after all of this? Are we stupid? Are we blind? Didn’t we read Game of Shadows? Nope. Nope. And yes. And one of the biggest outrages of this whole mess is how those two guys were facing jail time for not revealing their sources.

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