Hey, Live Music Fans!

Do you love to hear your favorite musicians live? Are you frustrated when you miss concerts you really want to see? Here's the perfect fix: it's called iConcertCal.


It is a free plug-in for iTunes that scans your music library and finds when the artists in it are playing in your area. iConcertCal displays this information on the iTunes visualizer. Installation couldn't be easier. Concert information is automatically downloaded each week.

Sorry, PC people. This is Mac only, at least for now.

UPDATE/CORRECTION: Jeff from iConcertCal writes:

"Thanks for your blog about iConcertCal! I'm glad you like it. I just wanted to let you know that iConcertCal is actually available for both Macs and PCs. If you get a chance, would you mind fixing that line in your blog that says: "Sorry, PC people. This is Mac only, at least for now."

Thanks again for spreading the word about iConcertCal."

You're welcome, Jeff! Sorry for the mistake, and thank you for the software.

River of Doubt

Knowing I liked Presidential histories, my friend Ivanna gave me a book for Christmas called The River of Doubt. It's about Theodore Roosevelt's expedition to explore the Amazon not long after he lost the 1912 election.

No mere political bio, this book reads like the kind of outdoor adventure story Jon Krakauer would tell. The trip was a triumph of the age of exploration, an achievement so impressive that many doubted Roosevelt's account of it. An important 1,000-mile long tributary of the Amazon was charted. On the way, the expedition had to grapple with hostile Indians, devastating rapids, outbreaks of cholera, man-eating fish, hunger, dissension and even a murder in their ranks. Roosevelt himself comes to the cusp of death. Other leading characters include Roosevelt's son Kermit and the very formidable co-commander of the expedition, the Brazilian Candido Rondon. Both these two could match our 26th President for strength of will.

Martin Scorsese has announced his intention to make a film out of Edmund Morris's excellent book, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt. He has chosen to concentrate on Roosevelt's time with the Rough Riders fighting the Spanish-American War. The question is, why make only one film? This, the most colorful of all our Presidents, could provide the grist for ten different movies. The "River of Doubt" episode could be certainly be one of them. This book is recommended!

Fratellis, pt. 2

During his keynote speech yesterday Steve Jobs introduced the new iPod silhouette ads. He said the music was by an "up-and-coming British pop band". Yes, it was the Fratellis, the band I was blogging about a couple of days ago. Check it out:

New Music!

An online acquaintance of mine turned me on to a new band called The Fratellis. Their debut LP "Costello Music" won't come out in the US till March, but they're already quite big in the UK. Despair not, however. You can download their US EP -- "Flathead" -- though iTunes. It's great stuff... power pop but with an urgency that just screams "LISTEN!"

You can sample their stuff here or visit the iTunes store.

DeVito on the View

By now you might have already seen this clip of Danny DeVito on The View.

I'm outraged about the outrage. The Post and the Daily News were moved to use the same sneering pun -- Danny DeVino -- showing that mediocre minds also think alike. Press flacks had to work overtime to spread word of Danny's remorse. Barbara Walters was said to be upset; poor Danny had to call her to apologize.

Please tell me, what is the sin? Is it making great television on a program like The View? Is it poking silly fun at our Dear Leader? (Actually, when the President is Bush, making monkey faces counts as a cogent and intellectually rigorous satire.) Is it pulling down Lemoncellos with George Clooney all night? Is it enjoying sex with his wife? Is it almost forgetting to plug the silly Christmas movie he's in?

Danny DeVito should get thanks not finger-wags.

Macs and Liberals

The idea that liberals are more likely to choose the Mac platform has been around for a while. I had always thought that it was probably because creatives are over-represented among Mac users, and liberals are over-represented among creatives. But Kevin Drum goes to a progressive conference and reports that about 70% of the laptops are Apple. There might be more to this than that.

Maybe it's because living in Mac-land is like living in a socialist utopia. Everything has been pre-planned and designed for your comfort. Owning a PC, on the other hand, is like being stranded in a capitalist jungle: products are sprouting everywhere, dangerous tropical viruses are in the air, lots to eat and lots to be eaten by.

UPDATE: Drum says Apple has a 4% market share. That's true of computers in general, but they have a much stronger position in the laptop market: around 12%.

No Second Acts?

There is a famous adage often ascribed to F. Scott Fitzgerald: "There are no second acts in American Life." These words are in the air these days because Trent Lott, the former Senate majority leader who left his post in disgrace after making remarks that were interpreted to be racist, has returned to the Republican leadership. "There are second acts in American life," says George Will on the tube this morning. "That's the most untrue truism ever" says David Brooks on another show, becoming quite exercised. Of course, Brooks is right. Google the term and you find that practically all the hits are debunking the saying rather than quoting it affirmatively.

How did we come to adopt an adage we so thoroughly disbelieve? Where does the stickiness factor for this saying come from, to borrow Malcolm Gladwell's term? We cite these words not as a truism but as a horror story: nothing scares an American more than the possibility that self-invention is impossible. To disprove such an idea is infinitely comforting.