Is the "amen break" the most important drum loop ever? Nate Harrison thinks so. This nicely illustrates how having total command of the subject can make any topic fascinating.

TG on the insanity of making movies, <I>Spamalot</I> as pension plan, and who really deserves the term "crook."

Last night, I sat down for a bit with Anthony Hamilton and his open road. You're what I want. You're what I need. You touch the deepest part of me. And these loose and tenuous warbling riffs stretched out wide across my windows, parting the curtains and welcoming in the neon lights from the bar on the other side of Monmouth.

<I>SciOrg</I> is reporting that an optical-based quantum computer has successfully demonstrated "counterfactual computation," which is to say it came to its conclusion using information that is counter to what actually happened to reach a correct answer. Also, the computer did not actually run.

<A HREF="http://www.therestisnoise.com/">Alex Ross</A> links to this fabulously funny informercial hawking the International Mattias Bamert Society's collection of the catchiest twelve-tone rows ever! Alban, Arny, and Anton&mdash;they're triple-A<I>riffic</I>!

Yeah, I'm probably beating this one into the ground, but these are awfully darn good.

I'm a reggae snob, so I began reading this article with suspicion. I was wrong, Field Maloney knows his Wailers&mdash;and he knows that the Wailers' best recordings are seldom heard here in the 'States. If you haven't heard <I>Soul Rebels</I>, <I>African Herbsman</I>, and <I>Rasta Revolution</I>, you haven't heard them at their best. The American releases were way too prettied up and defanged. If you think you love Bob Marley, you <I>must</I> hear <I>African Herbsman</I>. Full stop&mdash;end of story.