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This Is Your Left Channel

It was terribly difficult to get out of bed this morning. Wasn't it? For me, the soft sound of car tires over wet city street was a warm whisper: Stay in bed, don't go.

It's a grey day in New York City, but we're back in action. The "Products of the Year" plaques arrived&#151the shredded newspaper packing material that's covering my office floor proves it. None of the hefty glass plaques shattered in transit, but one was accidentally duplicated by the trophy company. So one of our lucky winners will be getting two awards this year.

Our new supply of Test CD 3 discs…

Big Man On Campus

Ricky Rosas is teaching the USC Trojans how to be something better than football heroes—he's teaching them to be adults.

On Lateness and Meaning

Peter Williams ponders a recent spate of books on Johannes Brahms' "late" ouvre. What does "late" mean? What does music mean, for that matter?

This Explains Everything

Wired's Seth Mnookin interviewed UMG's CEO Doug Morris, who proves that record labels were even more clueless than anyone could have even imagined when it came to the changing landscape of the Internet.

"Morris insists there wasn't a thing he or anyone else could have done differently. 'There's no one in the record company that's a technologist,' Morris explains. 'That's a misconception writers make all the time, that the record industry missed this. They didn't. They just didn't know what to do. It's like if you were suddenly asked to operate on your dog to remove his kidney. What would…

Broadway Electrician Talks Shop

As the stagehands' strike enters its third week, The Boston Globe discovers what it is a Broadway electrician does. Anybody besides me find it strange that no NY paper did this?

After Four I'm Under My Host

A history of the Martini. A fine old drink—and I'll bet you didn't know how old—although I still prefer a rye Manhattan (with Orange bitters, of course).

Queen Majesty

Trilla
Deadly Dragon Sound

Few people know this about me, and those who do include my mom, my sister, certain other women, and only my very closest friends&#151it's that kind of thing, you see&#151which is to say: It's not something to brag about, but it's something that's somehow central to my personality, and here it is:

I'm a complete and total sucker for late '80s/early '90s Top 40 R&B and pop.

No, seriously: I can sing all of the lyrics to George Michael's Faith&#151the album, dudes, not the song. In track by track order. I have…

Of the Most Litigious

"What's that?!" cried music editor Robert Baird, pointing to the plastic-sleeved CD on my desk.

"That's Queen Majesty's Trilla. It's awesome."

"Trilla? Well, she better be careful with that. Michael's one of the most litigious guys out there. She's pushing it with that."

I nodded and made some sort of sound that expressed my accord: "Mmm-hmm."

Inside, I was cracking up, laughing Sam Tellig's evil laugh: Heh heh heh. I'm not sure what tickled me more: The idea that Michael might go after Queen Majesty for copyright infringement or that Robert seems…

We're Going on a Boar Hunt

Well, James Wilson did—between drinks. "The next morning, still reeling from horse [meat] and champagne, it was time for the hunt."

"As we finished our lunch, a group of traqueurs came over to the hunters' side and—seeming to be offended—insisted that we come join them. It seems the traqueurs had broken open a bottle of local moonshine called bistouille and were drinking shots."

"Soon enough, the hunters were eager to find a postprandial boar to shoot, and called for us traqueurs to trudge back into the forest."

Complications, as they say, ensue.

Chocolate Beer

Did chocolate lead to beer?