A collection of links for your edification and enjoyment:

• NPR's "All Songs Considered" has a fantastic series of streaming concerts.  I've been particularly enjoying the offerings from the New Pornographers, Neko Case, Galactic, Gogol Bordello, Dave Brubeck, Nickel Creek, and Okkervil River;
• Boooooooring!  Smogr notes that the massive (200-ton), expensive ($10MM) tunnel boring machine has begun to dig the new LIRR tunnel from 63rd Street to Grand Central.  Lots of interesting pictures await you at that link, as will the revelation that they may just leave the machine underground when the tunnel's completed; apparently they can't go in reverse, and it's sometimes cheaper to leave them where they are than haul 'em out again;
• New York magazine has a great list of 100 vintage New York videos, from Edison shorts to great musical performances;
• 50 years of Kikkoman soy sauce in the USA;
• Fascinating article in yesterday's NYT about the life of a "patient transporter" -- one of those guys who moves gurneys around in a hospital -- and how his gridlock-busting skills can make the difference between life and death;
• Did you know that "Sweet Caroline" was written about Caroline Kennedy?  (She was 13 at the time...Hmmm.)
• Interesting discussion in the comments of this NYT "City Room" posting about when privacy rights in the public arena come into play.  An artist took a photo of an Orthodox Jewish man walking along the street in Times Square.  The subject of the photo sued the artist several years later, citing an invasion of privacy and his religion's ban on "graven issues."  (The suit was dismissed recently because the court ruled that the action needed to have been brought against the artist within a year of first publication.)  Now, this brings up an interesting and as-yet-unresolved legal issue, even though it wasn't quite one addressed in the lawsuit:  where does the photographer's right to take pictures in public (typically, everything except for where the subject would have a "reasonable expectation of privacy" is fair game) collide with the subject's right to control his likeness for commercial purposes?
• Free burr grinders (well, you pay shipping, but it's still a pretty good deal.)
• Oh, this is a neat idea;
• and so is this:  book autopsies;
• Why is the Catch 22, why does the postman always ring twice, and why is Wooster's butler named Jeeves?  The Telegraph explores;

Comments

[Keith Irwin]

I got to see Galactic in concert when they came through Raleigh. They had Lif and Boots with them, but not Chali 2na, so it's nice to get to hear him. I need to see if I can find a recording of Galactic from the earlier leg of the tour where they had Chali instead of Lif since they probably did a large number of songs with him.

I also wanted to to throw a note in that "We Are The Ones" isn't really a Galactic composition. It's composed by Boots Riley (of the Coup) who is also the fellow rapping on it (and sounding like he might be starting to lose his voice some, but then, it's the last day of a two or more month tour). It's a Coup song being played by Galactic. In concert they did six songs with Boots (not counting the encore with all the rappers). Of those, five were Coup songs and one was the new song he did with Galactic. The amount of Coup material they did was kind of surprising to me, but also pretty cool. In total, it was like 12 tracks of Galactic stuff and 5 tracks of Coup stuff. The Coup generally tours with a live band, so it wasn't flabbergasting, but still it definitely suggests the esteem that the band has for Boots and his work. I tend to hold him in pretty high esteem myself, but it's nice to see other's appreciating him and exposing his music to an audience which may not be familiar with it.

By the way, if you're thinking about that Sansa mp3 player as being something which could be used for concert recording, it really can't. Honestly, given the recording quality there wouldn't be any point to putting a mic input on it. That said, as an mp3 player, it should probably be good. I went ahead and bought a couple to serve as thank-you presents for my brothers for serving as groomsmen in the wedding.