Wes Phillips

We've written frequently about the lawsuits brought by the recording industry against alleged downloaders, but here's an interesting fact: None of the cases has actually gone to trial yet. Many have been dropped by the labels when it appeared they had targeted the wrong defendants; even more have been settled by defendants intimidated by the $750-per-song damages claimed by the labels. Now an attorney is vigorously seeking a trial—and one of his big arguments is that the labels' math doesn't add up.

One of the treats of my Thanksgiving was an up-close-and-personal analysis of my 14<SUP>th</SUP> century musical manuscript by Metropolitan Museum fellow Eric Weaver. I was reasonably sure of its date, based on the staff structure and mensuration, but Eric taught me an immense amount about parchment, calligraphy, illumination, monastic culture, and medieval guilds in the 30 minutes or so that he discussed my musical fragment. In short, he took an object I see above my hi-fi every day and made an epoch come alive&mdash;conversationally and off-the-cuff.

Bagheera is the mistress of the disbelieving glare.

Daniel J. Levitin, author of <I>This Is Your Brain on Music</I>, has a website with a bunch of interesting music-related material, as well as a nifty little animated feature on his book.

Is industrial design "intelligence made visible" or "attention-seeking frivolity"?

It's a sensory-motor memory thing.

"Stuff that behaves a little bit outside the norm . . . ." Sounds like a pretty good description of my friends.