March 22, 2009 – For years, there have been Austin shadow parties and festivals in opposition to SXSW's corporate juggernaut -- the best, known affectionately as Fuck by Fuck You, booked local (and international) punk bands to squall and scream and spill beer all over the backyard of a venue called the "Typewriter Museum" (the 2009 event was redubbed Type by Type Writer). Then there've been New Yorker Todd P's confoundingly creative, lo-fi noise/punk/folk bashes. ÂBut this year, SXSW's most ambitious rival came courtesy of Los Angeles underground promoter Sean Carlson, who organized the free, all-day Mess With Texas extravaganza.

February 9, 2009 – For a Grammy performance that was literally show-stopping, it was hard to top Chris Brown's early Sunday cock-up -- the R&B singer turned himself in on an alleged domestic violence felony battery charge against an unidentified "female victim" who had "visible injuries." Brown and girlfriend Rihanna turned up at Clive Davis' pre-Grammy party, but both canceled their performances and Brown was later questioned by detectives.

February 6, 2009 – Aside from the Orwellian Reaganscape darkening the horizon, 1984 was a personal watershed for me -- a parent actually showed an interest in music that I listened to (well, sort of). Because clueless Republicans involved in Fucked-Up Ronnie's re-election campaign had tried to exploit Bruce Springsteen's Vietnam lament "Born in the U.S.A," and because the video for Springsteen's pop trifle "Dancing in the Dark" (featuring a winsome Courtney Cox) was getting intense MTV airplay (when heavy rotation meant more than nine spins a week), my mother -- a devout Christian who ignored pop -- attempted to start a conversation about him.

January 28, 2009 – Whew! (Deep breath) OK, here we go. Below are a random sampling of first reactions and inquiries regarding Lil Wayne's just-leaked "rock" single "Prom Queen," on which Weezy dialogues about lacey underwear and broken hearts through an Auto-Tune device and apparently brushes the strings of a guitar.

January 19, 2009 – Since back in October when I first heard the new Animal Collective album, Merriweather Post Pavillion, and later enthusiastically trekked through a windswept rainstorm to a listening party at Manhattan's River Room -- an oddly swelegant bar/restaurant ("Harlem's Tavern on the Green") perched hard on the Hudson River at the end of an endless concrete walkway off Riverside Drive -- I've been babbling about how wonderful and original and transcendent it is, how it single-handedly reinvents indie rock and electronic dance music,and how it makes me wish I still took E (or 2CB) or whatever designer party pill is making the clubscum rounds. After several free whiskeys at the River Room, a co-worker and I were concocting plans to throw a way outer-borough warehouse party where we'd get some cool-ass young DJ (like James Murphy's current weed carrier) to spin and rewind and cut/mash up Merriweat

December 12, 2008 – a:link { color:#339966;} a:visited { color:#339966; } a:active { color:#339966;} a:hover{ color:#339966;}}

December 4, 2008 – Remember when listening to a Kanye West album didn't feel like mowing the yard or cleaning out the gutters or changing a diaper? You know, work you don't get paid for? In the week since the release of Kanye's 808s and Heartbreak, I've had a similar conversation with people who actually like the album.

November 25, 2008 – 808's and Heartbreak, Kanye West's fourth solo record was released yesterday, after months of hype and debate, and weeks of leaked tracks, all of which feature the stricken producer/MC singing and half-rapping about lost love (primarily his broken engagement to designer Alexis Phifer) via the audio processor infamously known as Auto-Tune. The full album is a dislocating listen, which was clearly West's intention; he's asserted loudly that he expects extra kudos for pushing creative boundaries. Though the content -- our hero purging his heart, a la Marvin Gaye's Here, My Dear -- ordinarily would be the focus of discussion for a platinum rapper, the musical structure overshadows his attempts at introspection. Virtually all the songs establish a simple thematic flourish that repeats statically, with West intoning variations on pro forma romantic sentiments.

November 14, 2008 – Unless you had taped episodes of Gossip Girl, True Blood, 30 Rock, The Office, Skins, and Yo Gabba Gabba! to watch (like me), then Wednesday night's Country Music Awards was txt-yr-BFFz appointment television. Why?

October 30, 2008 – It's been a stressful couple of weeks for that part of your brain where Motown memories still reside poignantly and powerfully. The most-publicized blow to the mind was Jermaine Jackson's misbegotten announcement of a Jackson 5 reunion -- replete with PDA embarrassment Janet -- which was quickly scotched by Michael. But the less-ballyhooed, vastly more significant setback was the death of the Four Tops' lead singer Levi Stubbs, who passed away Oct. 17 at the age of 72.