We live in an era of blogs, tweets, aggregators, and Fox News. It's quite easy to exist in an ideological/cultural/sociological/psychographic bubble of your own making--one that entirely reinforces your existing systems of belief. That's why I start every morning with the Wall Street Journal.

Read this interview with Die Antwoord. Or this one. Or, better yet, catch up with them by reading this informative, catch-all post.

I like new sounds. I only really like new sounds, however, when they are encased in a structure that propels them -- be it a folk music architecture of repetitive and/or shopworn patterns; composed music's cerebral, considered developments; or a dance music's tension and release model.

Today's take on the Community Function is via late 19th century France & The New Yorker. The title was "Van Gogh's Ear: The Christmas Eve that changed modern art." In fact, though, the piece is about the isolation & collaboration & community artists have saught, lost & found in our modern era.

Will Oldham compiled a list of his favorite music of 2009 for the current issue of Artforum. The best part was his introduction.

The documentary is called Ladies & Gentlemen, Mr. Leonard Cohen.

I have a soft spot in my heart for Los Angeles Times emeritus pop critic Robert Hilburn. Back when I spent more time writing about music than enabling its makers to make a career at it, Bob was kind enough to invite me to the newspaper's dining hall for a pep talk.

Maybe you heard about Sufjan Stevens' recent US tour. Maybe you read my braggadocious post about the (tiny) role I had in kicking off this latest round of shows.

Contrary to the menacing spectacle of national chauvinism associated with China today, Confucian universal values embodied by the idea of tianxia (all under heaven) stem from an ethical scheme of ritualistic empire.  This global view based on cultural improvement is a far cry from the image of modern empires bent on acquiring territories, markets and resources.