I want to start this year's gift recommendations by briefly revisiting the results of my Musical Cultural Literacy for Americans write-in competition, which ran in the April issue. All 12 winning entries of 12 selections each are <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/thefifthelement/407fifth/index3.html">posted online</A> (footnote 1).
Now that Christmas has come and gone, and my need to hear Bobby Helms' "Jingle Bells Rock" has subsided — I'm not sure but I think it has something to do with those electric guitar flourishes—, it's seems an appropriate time to say something about the continuing and astonishing turmoil in the record business which according to most sources experienced a nearly 20 percent decline in sales of physical product compared with last Christmas.
For a cat who only drinks water, Huckleberry certainly does a passable imitation of a drunken stupor.
It occurs to me that in the three years I've been posting Friday cat blogging, I have never photographed Bagheera asleep. That wary look of hers is as close to complacent as she gets.
Now <I>Rolling Stone</I> has noticed the <A HREF="http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/17777619/the_death_of_high_fidel… wars</A>.
Well, if you're tired of being jolly, you <I>could</I> go see <I>No Country For Old Men</I>, which will counteract any amount of Whooville saccharine. John Patterson has a <A HREF="http://film.guardian.co.uk/interview/interviewpages/0,,2230352,00.html"… time</A> with the Coen brothers.
To see the big picture, go to <A HREF="http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap071225.html">Astronomy Picture of the Day</A>.
John Atkinson and I spent some time today admiring <a href="http://www.myspace.com/talwilkenfeld">Tal Wilkenfeld</a>'s bass playing. Sheesh. The girl is only 21 years old. Beyond her sheer skill, which is stunning, Wilkenfeld seems to just <i>know how to play</i>. I first caught her on PBS one night while flipping through channels. It was Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival, and she was performing with Jeff Beck. I was surprised to see such a young musician on stage with one of rock's living legends, but I soon discovered that Wilkenfeld was right where she belonged. Seems she <i>always</i> knew. Story goes that Wilkenfeld dropped out of her Sydney, Australia high school when she was only 16. Packed her bags and moved to Los Angeles to become a musician. She's only been playing bass for five years.
The Beeb censored Shane MacGowan's "Fairytale of New York" for its use of a slur.
Sam Leith <A HREF="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml;jsessionid=2CF13YVN1JHF5Q…; that Auntie mistook a slur for a swear-word—an unforgivable sin in the maidenly world of journalism.
