“Free” Music

I wasn’t previously aware of this. Music is completely free in China. Not just “easy to pirate with no consequences due to a lack of intellectual property rights legislation” free. Completely legally free. On Google. There’s actually a little link between the ‘News’ and ‘Shopping’ sections labeled ‘Music’: Once you click it, you can search for any artist, song, or album, and then easily download a high quality mp3 file from the Google page right to your hard drive, with no restrictions: Apparently Google earns advertising revenue on this, and gives the major record labels a cut. They’ve agreed to it because something is better than nothing. Can I take this music home? I looked at the ads.

Chinese Drinking Games

I’m in mainland China for the first time, and the first six hours have been a very interesting experience. All positive things, just very interesting. I’ll be spending the next two weeks the Gold Coast Marina Club, a state-owned hotel located on the banks of the Pearl River in Guangzhou. This place has embraced a strange variety of styles, including wood paneled walls decorated with model sailboats that remind me of old US beachclub hotels out of the late 70s, giant romanesque pillars spread throughout the lobby, and a dome shaped ceiling that is painted to look like a replica of the cloud ceiling at the Venetian. All things considered, it’s a very comfortable place to stay. Also, before I get to

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Yer Blues

This is pretty amazing. The Dirty Mac, with John Lennon and Eric Clapton on guitar, Keith Richards on bass, and Mitch Mitchell on drums, playing Yer Blues for a Rolling Stones TV special in 1968:

The Economist Gets Beer Wrong

And it’s too bad, because I usually really like The Economist. They’ve published an article this week titled “Coming to a head: Mathematicians invent a new way to pour stout.” It’s mostly a useless article about how a scientist claims that Guiness wouldn’t need to add those little nitrogen gas spheres to their beer bottles if the bottles were lined with — wait for it — coffee filters. I won’t even comment on why someone thought this might be interesting and relevant news. But the worst part is what the article gets wrong: ON MARCH 17th, St Patrick’s day, countless pints of Irish stout will be poured in pubs and homes around the world. As they sup their beer, revellers might do well

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Bright Eyes

I couldn’t make tonight’s Bright Eyes show at the House of Blues. Here’s what my friend, who is at the show, just texted me: “God came down with a symphony of angels and landed on Conor Oberest’s shoulder and quietly whispered ‘play son’ into his ear. And the crowd took a knee and gently wept from the beauty.” I’m not yet a huge fan of the new album, but now I regret my decision not to go.

The Happiest Man In America

Is a tall married upper middle class retired Asian-American Jew living in Hawaii. His name is Alvin Wong. From the NYT: For the last three years, Gallup has called 1,000 randomly selected American adults each day and asked them about their emotional status, work satisfaction, eating habits, illnesses, stress levels and other indicators of their quality of life. It’s part of an effort to measure the components of “the good life.” The responses are plugged into a formula, called the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, and then sorted by geographic area and other demographic criteria. The accompanying maps show where well-being is highest and lowest around the country. The New York Times asked Gallup to come up with a statistical composite for the

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