November 24, 2003 – In the annals of videogame history, this is the year before theyear before the year. In 2005, you will be having your rods andcones incapacitated by the output of your PlayStation 3 and Xbox 2.In 2004, you will be having your neurons fried by the final wave ofgroundbreaking titles designed for your soon-to-be-obsolete 128-bitmachines. This year, you'll be turning your crank. Okay, sothe situation isn't really that dire. It's true thatseveral of the games we so eagerly hoped would get us through thedoldrums of 2003 have been postponed until at least the next SummerOlympics. But that's no reason to put down your controllerand step into the cold, uncaring daylight. If you're lookingto do battle with aliens, vampires, Nazis, or alien vampire Nazis,you'll still be able to -- in some of the most excitingtitles ever burned onto a disc.

November 18, 2003 – By: Greg MilnerLast summer, Universal Music Group -- the largest of the fivecorporations that produce most of the music we hear -- madeheadlines by cutting the list price of its labels’ CDs byabout 30 percent. Universal CDs now retail for between $10 and $13,which should pressure other labels to follow suit. Universalofficials said the decision was in part an attempt to stem the tideof illegal downloading. But is slashing the price of an albumenough to entice a typical downloader away from Kazaa?“There’s no question that a third to half of thedecline in album sales is directly attributable todownloading,” says Russ Crupnick, vice president of the NPDGroup, a marketing-information firm.

November 17, 2003 – By: Marc Spitz, and Elizabeth Goodman“Thank you, Donald Dump, for letting us play yourcastle!” Johnny Rotten snarled as the Sex Pistols stormed theGrand Cayman ballroom of the Trump Marina in Atlantic City. Rottenmay not be the firebrand he was back in 1978, but as hunched oldladies pumped quarter after quarter into the nearby slots, the factthat the punk legend was stirring up some genuine anger under thegold plastic chandeliers almost made us forget that CreedenceClearwater Revisited had played this wedding-friendly venue theprevious night (and that someone held up a lighter during“God Save the Queen”). Have the Pistols become a sad,spent oldies act, or are they still relevant? We turned to thecrowd for answers. Wes Costenbader, 16, Whitehall, PennsylvaniaOccupation: High school studentWhy are you here?

November 17, 2003 – By: Kate SullivanPink looks great today, with her bleached hair slicked back and abelt buckle that says Kick Ass. She’s more curvy andwomanly these days and speaks with a confidence that’sreflected on her new record, Try This. Two years ago,fighting the R&B-diva mold her label had contrived for her,Pink went multiplatinum with the dance-rock Missundaztood,on which she collaborated with her then-obscure idol, Linda Perryof 4 Non Blondes. But after aborting sessions with Perry, Pink, 24,found a new creative partner in Rancid’s Tim Armstrong, whocowrote and produced nine tracks on Try This, whichcontinues her stylistic pastiche of soul, gospel, rock, rap, anddisco. Don’t worry, though: As she admits, lighting up aNewport, “I’m not that fucking evolved.” Was it hard to follow up a big seller like Missundaztood? I told [Arista president] L.A.

November 14, 2003 – By: Andy GreenwaldIf you’re going to be drinking with Brandon “Bam”Margera, watch what you say. One night this summer, Margera was ata bar near his suburban West Chester, Pennsylvania, home when heheard his Jackass coconspirator Ryan Dunn shooting off hismouth. “He was talking all kinds of shit,” saysMargera, 24, in his hyperactive Philly accent, “saying thatif he was in Iceland tomorrow, he’d go over this waterfall ina barrel. So I went home and straight-up bought tickets, and weleft the next morning. He pussies out for like three hours untilfinally he was like, ‘Dude, you spent seven grand flying usout here!’ and he powered it out and did it.

November 12, 2003 – By: Chuck KlostermanI’m the greatest songwriter of my generation. Granted, mostof my material falls outside the conventional parameters ofmainstream FM radio fare -- I like to fuse my country-tinged reggaewith progressive Tejano metal -- but the songs themselves areflawless nuggets of pure pop perfection. I like to drag thelistener through a mystical portal, deep into a subterraneanconsciousness that he or she never knew existed. I like to makeaudiences confront love and hate simultaneously. I like to bringthe darkness with extreme prejudice. This is who I am. Unfortunately, I rarely have the chance to employ my songwriting genius. This is mostly because my bandmates keep hanging themselves (we used to call ourselves Badfinger). But this doesn't mean my talents must go to waste. Instead, I am going to release my secret songwriting techniques to the public at large.

November 11, 2003 – By: Christine MuhlkeLittle-known fact: Every rock group has a puker. “I talked toa lot of bands when we were playing [England’s] ReadingFestival,” says Stills bassist Oliver Crowe, “andI’d say 70 percent of them puke before a show fromnervousness. Take Julian of the Strokes.” Crowe is definitely in the dry-heave phase. The Stills made several magazines' ten-best lists on the strength of a four-song EP and shows with Interpol, the Rapture, and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Now, the Montreal dark-pop quartet are heading south with their awesomely sulky goth-disco single "Still in Love Song." "I'm just getting over being anxious and crazy about everything," says drummer Dave Hamelin, who sings and cowrites with singer/guitarist Tim Fletcher. "But now I'm leaving my stuff everywhere.

November 6, 2003 – By: Tony Green Funk has been a euphemism for both stink and sex.But as pure musical expression, it means soul musicboiled down to the raw essentials, the grooves and riffsup front. Born in the late 1960s, its fusion of black-powerpride, R&B showmanship, and jazz chops has heldstrong for more than three decades--first as the soundof "urban" America's disastrous '70s, then as the root ofall '90s hip-hop. SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE STAND! (EPIC, 1969) SlyStone relocated James Brown's new beats from theDeep South to Haight-Ashbury, picking up relatives inDetroit and Memphis along the way. "Everyday People"and "Sing a Simple Song" sport refrains pithyenough for elementary-school sing-alongs, whilethe starry-eyed "Stand" and the teary-eyed "Don'tCall Me Nigger, Whitey" hint at contradictions thateventually shattered Sly's pop utopia.

November 6, 2003 – By: Ginny YangBetween October 22 and 25, fifty venues played host to nearly 900bands that infiltrated New York City for CMJ's annual musicmarathon. With the convergence of industry representatives, rockjournalists, eager college students, and even guest-speaker YokoOno, the festival seemed like one big adult playground of club gigsand open bars. The films and educational panels also helped shinelight on worthy underground artists, like Brooklyn’sTrachtenburg Family Slideshow Players.

November 5, 2003 – By: Craig McLeanWhether it's the Beatles, the Stones, Monty Python, or mad-cowdisease, it seems like the U.K. gets its unfair share of culturebefore the U.S. does. Now, at least, the hit BBC sitcom TheOffice will get the American audience it deserves when thefirst season is released on DVD this month. The premise of The Office, a cult success on BBC America since its January debut, is deceptively simple: It's a mockumentary look at a drab paper company in a drab town with the drab name of Slough. All-seeing cameras snoop on the meetings, gossip sessions, and after-hours binges of the dysfunctional staff,including David Brent (Ricky Gervais), the department's smug, jargonspewingboss; his obsequious second-in-command, Gareth (MacKenzie Crook); and desperate shlub Tim (Martin Freeman), perhaps the show's sole sympathetic character.