Wes Phillips

I probably shouldn't be linking to this, but it really made me laugh.

John Laurence spent a year embedded with the 101<SUP>st</SUP> Airborne. He respected and liked the guys he was reporting on, but what happened when his duty conflicted with the culture of loyalty?

It's not that we're jaded, but most mornings as we open the day's press releases, we manage to curb our enthusiasm as we read of the breakthroughs <I>du jour</I>. Yet, when we read that Steinway & Sons and Peter Lyngdorf had collaborated (as Steinway Lyngdorf) on a $150,000 "Steinway & Sons Model-D Music System," we knew we had to hear it.

On May 16, Amazon.com announced that it would launch an online digital music store "later this year" offering "millions of songs in the DRM-free MP3 format from more than 12,000 record labels." EMI, which recently announced that it would partner with the iTunes Media Store to release premium DRM-free MP3 downloads there, "is the latest addition to the store." Amazon claims that every song and album in the Amazon.com digital music store will be available exclusively as unfettered MP3 files.

There's an old Spanish proverb: "If six people call you an ass, start braying." A contemporary corollary might be that if enough audiophiles insist a product is the best ever, it behooves the "experts" to check it out. At least, that was John Atkinson's thinking when he suggested I audition the Oppo Digital DV-970HD universal disc player ($149).

"That's what matters. If cats looked like frogs we'd realize what nasty, cruel little bastards they are."
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Terry Pratchett, <I>Lords and Ladies</I>

The best rock songs ever, according to the prince of darkness&mdash;whose band, the Rock Bottom Remainders, I am so going to see June 1.