Musicians On Call sponsors private musical performances in hospitals and treatment rooms for patients too ill to leave their rooms. What a great charity. Support it with donations—or your "gently used" CDs.
The best journalism keeps things in perspective. This is a story you won't see reported in the national papers—it could have only been written by someone who lives in the place where it happened.
Not that any more is necessary. I hadn't heard any of Sasha Frere Jones' "Best of 2005" list until it reached the forty-somethings. Kids today, sheesh.
If you're in search of a great read, full of heart and in love with the way language can sing, Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys is the book you've been looking for.