Eat for the Environment
A couple of weeks ago, I was treating myself to sushi with some friends and I also happened to be on one of my “trying-not-to-eat-meat” streaks. There was an item on the menu that I was unfamiliar with, so I asked if it was MEAT?! Who knows!? I don’t read Japanese and am not the…
Monkey See Monkey Do
Since I found out I would be working for HeadCount, a number of people have asked me precisely what Headcount “stands for.” Like any self-respecting graduate student, I cite text written by others, in this case our mission statement: “HeadCount is a nonpartisan, non-profit organization dedicated to voter registration and inspiring participation in democracy through…
Seats Open in Smashing Pumpkins, Supreme Court
They’ve both lost key members. It’s up to two of Chicago’s finest to replace them. Nearly everyone with an opinion and an internet connection has an idea of who the replacement should be. Yes, the Supreme Court and the Smashing Pumpkins have a lot in common right now. On the heels of Billy Corgan’s announcement…
Is Napster Making A Comeback? Would Anybody Notice?
When is the last time you even thought about Napster? Or Kazaa, Morpheus and Audiogalaxy for that matter. Today, these names just seem like irrelevant gibberish. However, Napster has been waging a long, slow comeback fight, culminating with next month that they are introducing a new pricing model and unlimited music streaming. Customers now have…
Summer Starts with Summercamp
The festival season officially kicks off, as it does every year, with the annual moe. and Umphrey’s mecca that is the Summercamp Festival. Tiny Chillicothe, IL (population: 6,000) will double in size for the weekend as moe., Umphrey’s McGee, Les Claypool and the illustrious Willie Nelson bring some of that downhome, grassroots spirit that have…
Walk a Mile in No Shoes: DMB and TOMS Pair Up for Summer Vagabond Tour
The Dave Matthews Band is headlining the TOMS Shoes Vagabond Tour 2009 to help meet the company’s goal of giving away 300,000 pairs of shoes in 2009. As TOMS founder and Chief Shoe Giver Blake Mycoskie wrote on his blog, “It’s so neat to have one of the most influential, progressive, forward-thinking, change-making bands in…
Can Artists and Readers Help PASTE Stick It Out?
Print media is engaged in the fight of its life, having already suffered major casualties like the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Rocky Mountain News. Unfortunately for music fans, venerable alt-rock monthly Paste may be next. Advertisers have tightened their belts, and in turn Paste has tightened theirs, instituting salary cuts across the board, elimination of all…
Agriculture Blog War: Perfect vs. Good
The words “battle” and “organics” aren’t usually keeping one another company in a sentence, but there is a battle over organics brewing over at Huffington Post. Two food/ag/blog heavy hitters, Chelsa Green‘s Makenna Goodman and Stonyfield Farm CE-Yo Gary Hirshberg are engaged in a blog vs. blog about the organic movement. On one side, we…
Pay For What You Get
With the ever-decreasing success of physical record sales and the onslaught of digital free-bees and bonus material for many artists’ new releases, marketing departments are stretching the proverbial limit nowadays. Even huge artists with worldwide exposure like U2 and Dave Matthews Band are experimenting with new ways to promote new albums in a dynamic marketplace…
Too Big to Fail, Round 2?
The looming behemoth that is the Ticketmaster/Live Nation merger just got one step closer. Over half of Ticketmaster’s lenders have approved the deal, and despite much protest over antitrust concerns, a Justice Department investigation into the merger and millions of concertgoers who have learned to shake their head at anything that would make the ticketing…