I cannot judge a man's heart, and question why Drake did it... I will say this, I am glad he did what he did. Christians should be able to look at this video and be reminded of the call we have. | | | | Sam Woodyard, drummer for the Duke Ellington Orchestra, in 1958.
(Imagno/Hulton Archive/Getty Images) | | | | |  | “I cannot judge a man's heart, and question why Drake did it... I will say this, I am glad he did what he did. Christians should be able to look at this video and be reminded of the call we have.”
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| | rantnrave:// Apologies in advance for getting sentimental on this Monday morning, but the OLYMPIC closing ceremony can do that to a boy. (Excuse me also for talking about sports, but hey, that ceremony played to a worldwide audience and featured more music, played by more current—and more popular—artists than, for example, your typical SUPER BOWL halftime show.) I got teary-eyed watching the ritual passing of the Olympic flag from SOUTH KOREA to CHINA, host of the next Winter Games—a reminder that the Olympics are a continuum that connects our past to our present to our future and operates at least somewhat free of the fleeting conflicts of international politics (the occasional doping scandal or vice presidential snub notwithstanding). Also: skating pandas. The Games connect and preserve cultures and traditions, moving forward while respecting what came before. Which, in a closing ceremony, can mean spotlighting K-pop stars CL and EXO, who I'd like to think have obvious appeal to anyone with an affinity for current pop, but also 13-year-old YANG TAE-HWAN finger-tapping an electric guitar like an old master. I imagine CEO HENRY JUSZKIEWICZ at GIBSON guitars breathing a hugh sigh of relief at that, even if Yang was playing a competitor's axe. And I jot down the perhaps obvious note that K-pop and hard-rock guitar pyrotechnics come from the exact same cultural tradition. As does the dance music that MARTIN GARRIX was spinning after the Olympic flame was extinguished. As does the classical music, if you're willing to expand your timeline, that accompanied the parade of skiers, sliders, skaters and curlers from around the world. Maybe the whole thing was nothing more than "a massive K-pop-infused jukebox musical about a surprisingly upbeat mass evacuation of Planet Earth by athletic humans who like to dance." But to me it was a reminder, always welcome, that culture matters, that tradition matters and that it sometimes doesn't matter if you're North Korean or South Korean or if you're playing a guitar or a keyboard or what language you're rapping in... Maybe that SOUNDCLOUD investment wasn't such a great idea... AIRBNB enters the live-music business... DOUG MORRIS is launching a new label that may or may not be connected to APPLE... April Fools is more than a month away, so maybe someone mistakenly published this item a tad early?... RIP BARBARA ANN ALSTON of the CRYSTALS. | | | - Matty Karas, curator |
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 | The Washington Post |
| A former communist from Chicago wrote the song in the 1960s, decades before Trump turned it into an anti-immigrant fable. | | |
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 | Atlanta Magazine |
| “For me, it’s just about pursuing things that are beautiful and mysterious and, also, maybe trying to be helpful.” | | |
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 | NPR |
| If he succeeds, it would be the first piano made in his country - and the first made in Africa since 1989. Skeptics wonder if it's an impossible mission. | | |
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 | Billboard |
| The negotiated and much debated Music Modernization Act is now before our Congress and Senate, two groups embroiled in stalemates on health care, immigration and government shutdowns. But what does it mean and why does it matter? | | |
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 | Rolling Stone |
| How the "New Rules" singer went from an adolescence in Kosovo to a billion-stream hit. | | |
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 | PSNEurope |
| “Out came this ginormous sound.” | | |
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 | The Paris Review |
| On Andy Partridge, punk, beauty, madness, and our secret sounds. | | |
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 | The Guardian |
| From the Slits to MIA, musicians are the success story of this year’s Berlin film festival, and are making their greatest impact on video streaming services. | | |
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 | The Fader |
| A pastor, a rabbi, and other religious leaders consider the song's viral video. | | |
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 | Talkhouse |
| I think (I hope!) that the final result sounds as if everyone is playing at the same time in the same room. | | |
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 | Tedium |
| The evolution of the modern cell phone ringtone-and the Ukrainian guy who wants to give Apple’s default noises a refresh. | | |
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 | NBC News |
| If you want to measure the true power and timeless nature of George Harrison’s music, you need only to look at the music charts. | | |
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| Billboard |
| If Gibson Guitars is in serious financial straits, longtime owner and CEO Henry Juszkiewicz has an extremely good poker face - but he's realistic about the challenges ahead. | | |
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| Atlanta Magazine |
| Inventors travel from all over the world for Georgia Tech’s annual event, playing instruments made of everything from toys to lightbulbs | | |
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| The Fader |
| After a huge year of touring and releases, the Vallejo rap crew discuss recording with Kendrick Lamar and evolving as a group. | | |
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 | The Record |
| Walking into Rudy Van Gelder’s studio is akin to setting foot inside a magnificent cathedral from the world of jazz. | | |
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 | American Songwriter |
| Despite the loss, as Michael Sigman relates in the following, the fire brought home the “good news,” as he put it, which is that the songs live on. To write a standard, even one, is the most supreme achievement for a songwriter. Carl Sigman wrote many. | | |
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 | The Verge |
| How the rapper Dessa’s turn to neuroscience inspired her new album, “Chime.” | | |
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 | SPIN |
| On a chilly weeknight in late January, I meet Turnstile at Studio 4, a recording complex tucked away in the basement of a nondescript bar just outside Philadelphia. "Freaky" Franz Lyons, the band's bassist, supporting vocalist, and biggest social butterfly, goes in for a one-armed hug, clutching a cigarette in his other hand. | | |
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| The Guardian |
| The Suede frontman remembers the crushing blow of losing his mother and the subsequent fumbling beginnings of the band in this extract from his memoir. | | |
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 | YouTube |
| | | | | | For John Shuster and the U.S. Olympic men's curling team. |
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