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July 16, 2004

Movin' On Up

Posted by nerdling | July 16, 2004 05:38 PM

A caveat for my readers: I have some good news that potentially doubles as bad news. This has been a busy week for me, resulting in two promotions and a lot less free time. Yours truly is now taking on the duties of co-editor at LAist; outside the blogosphere, I am taking a new position at work. Aside from that, the next two weeks are going to be hectic for personal reasons.

Hooray for moving up in the world, but this means I might get a bit behind in my blogging. Don't be surprised if my posts don't show up until late at night, and please forgive me if things move a bit more slowly than usual. On the off chance that nothing much changes, forget I mentioned this at all.

News on Paul Westerberg's new album, Folker, due out this fall.

While on the topic of beloved songwriters with new albums coming out, Leonard Cohen is putting the final touches on Dear Heather, his newest album. I'm really looking forward to his cover of "Tennessee Waltz," a personal favorite of mine.

Cashing in on the digital music craze sweeping the country in the wake of iTunes' 100 millionth downloaded song, eBay has started a pilot program for digital music sales. It is unclear whether or not the program will continue after the trial period, but I am still unsure exactly how this would work. Are people selling iTunes songs for less than $.99? Are they selling the ability to access privately held songs online? This seems to be a rather clunky third-party provider situation that doesn't give much benefit to the buyer. But then again, you have to work really hard to get a good deal on eBay these days.

In miscellaneous news, the Senate is considering a $12M bill that would enable the government to buy out tobacco farmers, functionally putting the manufacture and sale of cigarettes under the control of the FDA. Apparently the government has decided that they aren't making enough money in taxes, and cigarettes seem to be the likeliest alternative source of revenue—all executed under the guise of our well-being, of course.

Lawsuits hit the gossip rags: Gawker Media, blogging smut-peddler extraordinaire, has been served with papers for linking to a site containing topless videos of a young Cameron Diaz. See where talking shit gets you in the end?