The biggest problem facing Arcade Fire is not enough people have heard their music. Old time players and music business insiders constantly ask the question "How do I get paid?"  That’s important, but secondary to "How do I get heard?" At dinner the other night, I asked how many people had heard Katy Perry’s "California […]

Badges. Dedicated readers will remember my meeting with Shawn Fanning at Quincy Jones’s house, wherein he spoke about making music a game, enabling fans to unlock status achievements like in video games and use their acquisition to become members of the club, to brag to fans. What kind of crazy fucked up world do we […]

Once upon a time, watching the Oscars was a ritual, as they say in the "Style" section of the "New York Times", the Women’s Super Bowl.  Watching Al Pacino win an Emmy, I thought of his role in the "Godfather" trilogy, of all those years parked in front of the television watching the glitz and […]

I can let the passing of the chief writer of "Howdy Doody" go by without comment, but I can’t be quiet about the death of Penny. I always wondered what it was like growing up without TV.  My parents told me about the great radio shows, but I couldn’t help feeling they were deprived, unable […]