<B>Gracenote's CMI:</B> Many audiophiles are joyously embracing high-end music servers in their systems, but one vexing little problem has remained for serious music listeners: The metadata tags that work so well for popular music are completely inadequate for identifying classical works.
While both XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio have been growing their subscriber bases (almost 8 million for each), Wall Street has remained unimpressed. Both firms ended 2006 with stock prices that were approximately half their 2006 levels (Sirius at $3.54 and XM at $14.45).
Deutsche Grammophon and Decca/London have announced a first in the history of opera on DVD: the simultaneous release of Mozart's entire oeuvre of operas and operatic fragments. Captured live at the 2006 Salzburg Festival as part of the 250th-anniversary celebration of Mozart's birth, the 19 DVDs feature striking productions of all 22 operas, plus a wealth of bonus interviews with conductors, singers, and other members of the artistic team.
As history goes, the U.S.A. is weird shape these days. But not all is lost. Yeah, we got our shit: the war in Iraq, a warped, unconnected, hilariously inarticulate jackass for a president, a porous border with Mexico (oh wait, the republicans billion dollar fence will solve that). But just when it looks like it's all sliding down a rat hole it's good to remember that hey, we still got Ted Nugent. U!S!A!U!S!A!U!S!A!
This video is making the rounds of the internets. It's a good way to remember a player who got far less respect than he deserved.
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"I was here first," grouses Bagheera.
Never go to sleep mad at one another.
Good morning, _____.<br>
Thank you so much for following the show blog. My goodness, these shows are such great work. Writing, in general, you know, is a kind of solitary activity. I think that's partly why I've been drawn to it; I'm a kind of solitary guy. But this team-effort show-blogging stuff is not solitary at all. The entire process runs opposite to what I normally think of writing and to how I approach writing. By the end — actually, almost right from the start — I am feeling completely drained.
As a child who grew up reading the light humor of S. J. Perelmam and James Thurber, I worshipped at the altar of Art Buchwald. I didn't know it at the time, but, looking back on it, he taught me a tremendous amount about the importance of voice. If the practice truly <I>is</I> treacherous, well, Buchwald certainly made it look easy.
When I traveled through Wisconsin in the '70s, you could still buy these for a quarter at junk shops around the state. Sure wish I'd taken advantage of the opportunity—as if we needed more <I>stuff</I> around here.