NPR

National Public Radio has a new beta site. It's a big site. It's a pretty site.

The site is ... NPR Music.

Live streams, downloads, videos, interviews, profiles, studio sessions, concerts, photos, blogs ... you name it: If it's music, the NPR Music site has it (that is, if it's been on an NPR station). Here's NPR's PR about the launch.

This morning, I found everything from Nickel Creek to Sones de Mexico (Chicago) to MF Grimm to Minus the Bear to Christopher O'Riley, and more. Also, it has links to the NPR Shop, which I think of as Geek One-Stop Shopping Heaven.

OMG though, there's nothing about Pink Martini. And OPB isn't among the stations being streamed, which isn't a big surprise since it's all talk, but still. Where's the West Coast presence? (No, Seattle/Tacoma can't stand in for the whole 2/3 of the country from the Twin Cities on over ... )

ANYWAY, it's a treasure trove of a site. And it's a test run, so I'm sure the, um, alpha site will have some Oregon presence!

Go download or stream something. It's legal. It feels good. Nothing better for a grey little Friday morning!

UPDATE: OK! I sit corrected. Here is the Pink Martini page! (Tip o' the keyboard to NPR Music's maven, Anya Grundmann, for pointing that out.)

OK. OK. I started a really long post on this topic last week. And yesterday, my post was destroyed when I tried to open another page. I wish I could say the page that destroyed my long, brilliant post on the National Endowment for the Arts etc. (see below) was, say, the webpage for something quite intellectual, say a chess-playing site.

But it wasn't. It was my favorite LOLCATS site.

Multitasking.

Anyway. I was gone for two weeks at the (clearing throat) Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism/National Endowment for the Arts Institute in Classical Music and Opera.

Before I go on, let me say that I got to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge at night (I've walked across it many times before, but never at night). That was freakin' glorious and worth the humiliating writing workshops.

Read all about it here.

Eugene's own Fast Computers have the Song of the Day on NPR with "Sweden Hasn't Changed, You Have" which is, come to think of it, my favorite FC song, too (though in my head the title lacks the last two words). Sure, they spelled Peter's last name incorrectly, but what's a little misspelling in the face of good publicity? Caroline Evans writes, "The melody itself is powerful, haunting and stark, but it also seems organic and natural, a perfect opening to one of the year's most satisfying releases." Sweet.

For more on the FC, you might peruse their tour diary entries on Willamette Week's Local Cut blog. Hey, why didn't we think of that?

Oh, I know: Local Cut has, um, readers.

(Three cheers to the guy who linked to one of my posts! You give me hope, sir.)