we are the borg, so saith our phones

Tower Records closed its doors in 2006.

We lost the Virgin MegaStore on Union Square just three years later.

These were social hubs where people actually met face to face, believe it or not, to discover the joys of new music.

Now the best indie shop in all of Manhattan is gone. 

I’ve been a fan of Other Music since it opened in 1995.

The cultural promise of recorded music is failing us.

Living-breathing musical ecosystems that once enriched our world’s cities are becoming bloodless, digital facsimiles.

Music portals are decomposing into indistinguishable clones of each other, like Staples, McDonald's and HomeDepot.

Losing Other Music is everything that’s wrong 

with the way we are discarding the richness of our human culture. 

politico’s take heed

1960

Television was the new medium when JFK defeated Nixon. 

JFK was tall and cool and handsome. Richard Nixon sweated on camera and his “I am not a crook” persona was sealed.

Today, every New Yorker has a Donald Trump-is-a-jerk in person story, and I have mine, too. You can read that cringeworthy account here:

http://clocktowertenants.com/2012/12/face-music.html

“Low energy Jeb, Lyin’ Ted, Crooked Hillary, Little Marco”, the Donald has mesmerized us all by controlling the narrative through a relentless and canny use of social websites.

Like it or not, he’s a master of manipulating the press.

And we’ve changed since the dawn of social media.

Our attention spans are shorter, our thinking is shallower and we don’t care about the truth as long as FaceBook loads and we can see how our frenemies are doing.

So in real time Donald Trump is schooling the entire United States on how a candidate with little political experience and even less likability runs for our highest office in the digital age, with an increasing aura of inevitability.

Hill is where we’ve been and Donald Trump is where we’re going.

For those believing a Donald Presidency is still unthinkable, 

I’d submit he’s about a decade ahead of where you are.

race relations

2002 was a banner year for the Indianapolis 500.

Indy Car Series racer Sam Hornish Jr. was just 22 years old when he won the series championship, the youngest in Indy history.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Hornish_Jr.

He did it in a Panther racing team Chevolet.

This one!

He went on to win the Indy500 in 2006.

A typical Indy Car makes about 650 hp.

It weighs about 1525 pounds.

And costs over $500,000.

A new Ford Mustang will produce 350hp but can weigh upwards

 of 3,800 pounds.

But it will only set you back about $30K.

This month is the "100th running" of the famed Indianapolis event.

I'm in my 64th walking. So to speak.

if you have an ear for music

this is hilarious.

This poor young woman cannot sing, moving through a variety of different keys in her rendition of our Star Spangled Banner.

So the gentleman crafted an identical piano accompaniment.

you would pry too, if it happened to you

19th century media barons wielded enormous control over the bias of their newspapers.

Today the NY Post is noticably conservative while the old, gray-but-tarted-up lady is leaning left to bolster her academic relevance.

But "old school" actually had to build something they could sell to the public.

Zuckerberg persuaded a billion users to build it for him, while earning over $4.million for each day of his life, so far.

He's being criticized for personal prying and journalistic bias.
Let’s give Zuckerberg a break. 

It’s his platform and he’ll pry if he wants to.

Expecting him to set new standards of integrity while enriching himself unimaginably is unrealistic.

"It’s my party" soared to #1 a few weeks after Lesley Gore's 17th birthday.

rip

staple of salvation