Having some fun remembering my favorite videos from the 90s, inspired by Pitchfork’s list. This one didn’t make their countdown but is a favorite of mine. Chan was hypnotizing. Once I was at a party where we put the Matador collection of videos in, and my friend Brad and I just rewound this one over and over and over again.

Source: youtube.com

Making music for a cause, Oberst and friends unite - Omaha.com

This is the first and only time I’ll say this: “I wish I was in Omaha.”

Lullaby For The Working Class was one of my favorites when I was deep into Saddle Creek bands, and I miss the Desaparecidos and still treasure my “Read Music, Speak Spanish” album and my Desa t-shirt from their show at Emo’s in 2001. Plus Gillian Welch, Cursive, and “special guests”? Exciting. And for a great, meaningful cause. 

Coco still looks funny with a beard.

Source: omaha.com

Local Bookstores, Social Hubs, and Mutualization « Clay Shirky

“This group believes, in other words, that book buying is a widespread activity while internet access is for elites, the opposite of the actual case.”

Sad but true. For now, Austin is lucky to have so many rich people who can choose where to buy books (and records and groceries), many of whom choose BookPeople. IMO, BP still banks for a few reasons: the staff, the events, and an almost altruistic (and perhaps even misguided) devotion from it’s community. It’s like the ideas in this article about becoming a nonprofit are already how the public in Austin views BookPeople, except that BP is not actually structured that way at all. That’s for the best for someone like me who takes an immense amount of joy in having a beautiful, spacious bookstore in my community, but I wonder how long it can last.

I am surprised that this post didn’t touch on the idea of smaller local businesses taking advantage of the rise of online bookbuying, ala Powells. I think this could also be a huge factor. BookPeople has been very slow to adapt to the internets the way that Powells has, but the baby steps have finally become more like toddler steps in the last year or so, with the improvement of the BookPeople blog, the development of the twitter page, etc..

Anyway, after living in Austin for twenty years and working at BookPeople for almost half of those, I have a lot of opinions about bookselling and bookstores. Some of them aren’t pretty. That said, I love independent bookstores and I really hope that the best ones can find a way to make it. I don’t think letters to the Justice Department are helping.

Source: shirky.com

Owen Pallett covering Game of Pricks, via The Onion AV Club. Best to just skip to about 1:40 for the actual cover, unless you’re a big fan of Owen talking — which I am, of course, but I realize everyone may not be.

There are a bunch of other interesting covers here, with more to come (including Superchunk, NMH, and my favorite Cure song (can’t wait!)). Thanks to John for the tip.

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