Music of the day: Folk Art by Joe Lovano

I can't believe this album went completely under my radar when it was released in 2009. Fortunately Stereophile magazine mentioned it recently. Lovano was backed by a new band (including bassist Esperanza Spaulding,.before she won her Grammy ) and he wrote new tunes (all of them) on it. I just listened to this ballad "Wild Beauty" which lived up to it's title. Lovano's ballad always impresses me.

The RAZR Fit Driver vs. The Bellagio Fountains TV Commercial

This is a cool commercial. A lot of us are familiar with that lake. Having a golfer hitting a ball over it with a new driver is a great way to promote it for sure. I wonder if he did it so perfectly with his first shot though.

Keep on rockin' in the free world

Just read this story about Apple's ambition to improve the fidelity of music downloads has diminished since the death of founder Steve Jobs, according to singer-songwriter Neil Young. The most interesting part though, was that Young embraced illegal music downloads. "Piracy is the new radio," said Young, whose music has long had a rebellious streak. "I look at the Internet as the new radio. I look at the radio as gone."

I can totally understand. A lot of musicians made money from live performance (the drinks and the merchandises) Their cut from "legal" download or CD sale were small. I heard that some musicians signed contract that doesn't even include the cut from download, i.e., the record company keeps all of that.

The Chairman and the controversy

"Chairman" is the name of a food truck I saw at Folsom and 2nd St in SF the other day. Definitely a flashy sounding name! I didn't try the food though so don't know how good it is. I did google about it afterwards and found that it was involved in a controversy: the truck was originally named "Chairman Bao", which is the same as the top-selling item by a NYC shop called Baohaus (another great name BTW) Baohaus' owner was really upset that someone took that name. Looks like the truck owner gave in and changed the name! Not sure who to side with on this one but I guess both party should be happy that lives go on.

Contador banned

"This is just a very sad day for cycling." I'm quoting pro-cyclist Andy Schleck here and I agree with him (for me personally, it's more sad yesterday because I got 2 flat tires during my ride) For a casual cyclist like me, watching Alberto Contador climbing up hills like they are nothing was simply amazing. To me, he's superman. Oh well, using banned substance tarnishes his reputation forever. Just like my other favourite sports star Barry Bonds. Andy Schleck who finished 2nd to Contador at 2010 Tour De France will likely to be declared as champion instead. What if the same happened to US Sports? USC should have been taking away their football national championships on the years that Reggie Bush played (And the Heisman he won should have been given to Vince Young!) How about New England Patriots' "spygate"? Are they guilty of cheating by spying other team's practice during the years they won the superbowl? How long will the curse of spygate lasts? Patriots have lost 2 superbowls after that controversy already!