Good Bands Choose Their Favorite Songs of the Year

Stereogum has published a pretty comprehensive list of great songs and albums from 2008. The cool part is the list comes from members of some of the great bands of 2008. A musicians on musicians list instead of the typical critical assessment of the year past. Read it here and enjoy! (So much to download!)

Your Unfaithful Servant

Playwright Harold Pinter Dead at 78

From the BBC a short obituary on the amazing playwright here. Your one of a kind style will be missed.

New: Flight of the Conchords Premiere Online

For all you Flight of the Conchords fans you can catch the season premiere right now:

Bye Bye Polaroid!

A little remembrance of the passing of Polaroid to come here. Polaroid will stop making the film in February. I heard that third parties will still make it, which is good news for photo nerds everywhere.

Unfaithfully Yours

New Lily Allen Song/Video: 'The Fear'

Stereogum pointed me to this. I like it a lot. Enjoy!



Your Unfaithful Servant

Some Details on Middle Cyclone, Neko Case's Next

Pitchfork gave us some additional details today on Neko Case's forthcoming solo record 'Middle Cyclone' including the tracklisting and complete list of contributors.

Enjoy it here.

Your Unfaithful Servant

Anti-Viral: Mosquitoes and their Immune System

Why don't mosquitoes become infected with the viruses that they carry? I grew up hearing/assuming that they were just buddies. Maybe the viruses did something for them or maybe the virus didn't act upon mosquito cells for some reason. Well turns out the younger me was wrong.

Apparently mosquitoes have a very pronounced immune reaction to the viruses that actually slices the viruses into harmless pieces. When a mosquito infects a human it is because she hasn't completely eradicated the virus from its system.

The SciAm article goes on to describe some potential uses for this knowledge. One: mosquitoes can me genetically modified to suppress immune response thus killing the mosquito before it can infect a human. Two: use knowledge of the mechanism of immune response to viruses in mosquitoes to craft human therapies.

Read more details here.

Unfaithfully Yours

Lance Armstrong Confirms He Will Ride in Tour

Lance has confirmed that he will ride in both the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia this year. However, he may be riding in a support role in at least the Tour. I find it hard to believe he won't push to be the team leader, but he has some VERY stiff competition on that team, so regardless he may end up helping someone else win the race. We'll see. Read the details here.

This will definitely bring back attention to the Tour in the States. What effect it has on the rest of the cycling world I am too ignorant to suggest.

Your Unfaithful Servant

For the True Believers Will Never Die

Cool article from SciAm. No need to age any lonnger. Phew!

Read here.

David Snoring

This isn't a new clip, but I thought it should be shared with a wider audience. It is also hard to track this clip down by searching, so it will save me from ever having to do that again.

Enjoys the not-so-soothing sounds of David's drunken snoring: