Here’s a pretty infuriating story from the New York Times about how a noted and respected musician and teacher was summarily interrogated and booted out of America and given no reason why.  As the article notes, not only is she deprived or her rights but also the students and faculty who were going to work with her have lost out also.  Why is there no accountability for this kind of insane xenophobia?  Are we just going to lock up all of our foreign scholars so that we can live under the illusion that we’re making ourselves safer and that we’re still a free country?

—Jason Gross

In what’s sure to become a classic moment in live stage patter, Trent Reznor, aka Nine Inch Nails, tells an Aussie audience that since his CD’s are still priced too expensively there, they should just go out and “steal it.” See the it at YouTube now.

—Jason Gross

We’re so used to bands doing ads or having their songs used as product placement or having corporations sponsor tours that any news of this sort doesn’t raise eyebrows now.  You just hope that your favorite band doesn’t get associated with anything too embarrassing.  And then there’s the case of Band of Horses and the backlash and their response. So is BOH right to say that they’re just trying to earn a living and keep playing music or are there some lines that shouldn’t be crossed in taking ad money?

—Jason Gross

The excellent Soul Patrol site/network has two great round-tables recently posted that are definitely worth your time to listen to, both from their Philadelphia convention on May 27, 2007

Black Music Cultural/Social Impact: Moderator: Darrell McNeil- BRC, Patricia Wilson Aden- Exec. Dir. R&B Foundation, Mark Anthony Neal- Author/Educator, Dr. Ric Wilson- Artist, Jimmy Castor - Artist, Charles Wright- Artist

Jazz Panel: Moderator: Tee Watts- Broadcaster/Journalist, Geri Allen- Artist/Activist, Kayte Connelly- Former Berks Jazz Fest Exec Dir, Kenny Mead- Jazz Producer, TS Monk- Artist/Activist, Onaje Allan Gumbs- Artist/Activist

—Jason Gross

Like most other viewers, I wasn’t so much appalled as much as bored by Britney Spears’ recent MTV Video Music Awards appearance.  She’s didn’t trip or stumble but she committed an even worse sin on TV- she wasn’t interesting anymore.  Since this was billed as her ‘comeback,’ it was doubly bad for her to get such a horrible reception.  I’m not going to tell you that she didn’t stink (it definitely S-U-C-K-E-D badly) but I still have to wonder about all the hate leveled at her.

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—Jason Gross

An old truism is that you never buy the first or latest version of any software or techie device.  The reason’s simple- the newest version is bound to have bugs and problems and you effectively are providing research and development for the company while also paying for the privilege to do so.  But ultimately, that’s the price of having the latest slick little device in our consumer culture.  How many iPhone users had buyers’ remorse when they first found out that the product was discounted $200 only two months after they bought theirs?  They were pretty pissed of course and eventually Apple had to offer discount vouchers though they’re for half the price and only good to trade in for more Apple merchandise.  As a ZNet article pointed out, the $100 that they “refund” the original iPhone customers ain’t gonna buy you much through Apple.  This literal/figurative miscalculation on the part of Apple may do their brand more damage than any of their perspective competitors: there’s surely going to be less people ready to buy the next slate of new Apple products when they come out, feeling burned by the iPhone (though rest assured, plenty still will).  If you’re still not convinced that Apple ain’t the most consumer-friendly corporation out there, ask yourself why they’re offering new iPod classic models with a whopping 160MB capacity but only offering Wifi capabilities in their new iPod Touch models with a measly 16GB capacity.  Clearly, they don’t want to cut into their own iPhone biz but they’re driving trying to carve up the market as best they can by not offering all the bells and whistle in one place (i.e. large capacity plus connectivity).  Still, they own the market for portable music and will probably for a while.  Unless of course, they keep screwing up these roll-outs…

—Jason Gross