Every year 35,000 new CDs are released. With all those artists clamoring for an audience, it’s not surprising that some musical gems get overlooked.
As the year comes to a close, NPR asked a few people who monitor the music business to comb through their files to share a few of this year’s releases that, in their view, didn’t get the attention they deserved.
Sauerkraut’s Sweet Spot
Love it or hate it, cabbage is getting plenty of press for its potential to fight illness ranging from cancer to bird flu. It all began a few months ago when South Korean scientists noticed that feeding the spicy cabbage dish kimchee to roughly a dozen chickens infected with bird flu caused most of them to recover. Restaurants selling kimchee ran out quickly and the idea that cabbage cures started to spread.
Boomers Impact on Car Design
But to the rapidly aging Baby Boomer population, a plunging windowline and promises of 120hp/liter aren’t what matters: strong door hinges and louder warning chimes are. So says Automotive Body Repair News (ABRN), which examines (and predicts) the effect of a growing senior populace on the face of car design.
Advances in active and passive safety top the list of retiree-friendly developments, along with primary and secondary controls that are easier to operate for those with decreasing motor and visual skills. Among the ideas already gaining traction are:
San Francisco WiFi RFP
San Francisco’s request for proposal for its citywide network is out: The city published a PDF of the RFP today; responses are due Feb. 21, 2006….
10+100 Creative Commons Christmas Songs (MP3’s!!)
So, it’s Christmas today (or it will be tomorrow, depending on where you live). Wouldn’t it be nice if you had a bunch of freely and legally available Christmas songs you could listen to all day? Burn on CDs and hand over to your relatives? Share with your friends without the fear of being sued to death by big record labels?
Well, here’s a list of 110 111 songs which are all explicitly released under a Creative Commons license (no, I did not consider songs which are merely “podsafe”!) and thus can be shared, listened to, and sometimes even modified freely. There’s a great variety in style, mood, and genre of the songs: some traditional, some contemporary, some happy, some sad, and some just plain funny
An Exotic Holiday Feast
In The New American Cooking, cookbook author Joan Nathan showcases some of the more unusual items that are turning up on America’s tables — plantains, pomegranates and other once-obscure ingredients.
Advertising & News
Kristian Knutsen nicely rounds up commentary on the recent WIBA/Amcore newsroom sponsorship deal:
his is the third part of an extended look at the deal between Clear Channel Madison and AMCORE Bank to sponsor the WIBA-AM (1310) newsroom. The first part examined the deal and the possibility that similar sponsorships of other Clear Channel newsrooms are in the offing, while part two looked at how the deal could affect WIBA’s reputation.
Rules for Forecasting – Paul Saffo
“Never mistake a clear view for a short distance” – Paul Saffo
- Know when not to make a forecast.
- Overnight successes come out of twenty years of failure.
- Look back twice as far as forward.
- Be indifferent
- Tell a story or, better, draw a map.
- Prove yourself wrong
Un-Retirees Are Happier if they are Self-Employeed
A substantial portion of older Americans now in the work force chose to return there after retiring, and how well they’re enjoying their labor now depends a lot on whether they’re self-employed, according to two new reports.
About 10% of workers 40 and older are retirees who’ve returned to the work force, according to a recent survey that screened more than 17,200 workers to find retirees who went back to work, conducted for Putnam Investments by Brightwork Partners, a research firm.
Best Songs of 2005
ll Songs Considered host Bob Boilen counts down listener picks for the 10 best CDs of 2005, with NPR music reviewers Will Hermes, Tom Moon and Meredith Ochs. They also share some of their own favorites from the year and take calls from listeners. This program originally webcast live on NPR.org Dec. 16, 2005. Below are the top 10 CDs of 2005 chosen in our online poll, with select comments from the listeners who love them.