As CES approaches, the e-mails and phone calls pour in. Though the temperature here in New York City remains in the mid-fifties, we're snowed under by invites to dinners, demos, and other assorted press events. We mark our calendars, make reservations, create itineraries. As it continues, I wish that all the talk and preparation would come to a sudden end. I wish we were there already, in Vegas, listening to music.

MLB caskets and urns for the, ahem, die-hard fan.

An audio dictionary.

We <I>need</I> these.

Jessica Duchen says, "Christmas is coming, decisions are being made over whether to splash out on an organic turkey, and Handel's Messiah is being reheated for its annual outings. With its stirring choruses and memorable melodies, it's no wonder that Messiah is still everyone's seasonal favourite, especially when performed in a style allegedly appropriate to the mid-18th century. But just as consumers of supposedly organic food can be misled, so music-lovers, dazzled by displays of "superior" knowledge, often swallow assurances that they're hearing a historically correct performance when they manifestly aren't."

In the heated debate over new digital technologies and their impact upon the traditional recording distribution system, we've grown used to intemperate dialog, but an organization now charges that "mechanical royalties currently are out of whack with historical and international rates."

Ahmet Ertegun, the Turkish immigrant who founded Atlantic Records in 1947 with Herb Abramson and turned it into one of the most influential labels in the world with his older brother Nesuhi, has died at the age of 83. An Atlantic Records spokesman said his death was the result of a brain injury sustained in a fall backstage at a Rolling Stones concert on October 29.