Boss calls anti-Chick campaign “un-American” on his website: The Dixie Chicks have taken a big hit lately for exercising their basic right to express themselves. To me, they’re terrific American artists expressing American values by using their American right to free speech. For them to be banished wholesale from radio …

Paul Allen is at it again: the Science Fiction Experience will open in 2004: “Science fiction shows us that change is constant and exhilarating,” said Microsoft co-founder Allen, who is funding the project. Flanked by science fiction props such as Captain Kirk’s original command chair from the “Star Trek” television …

CNET confirms rumors that Real has bought Listen.com: RealNetworks has agreed to buy Listen.com for about $36 million in cash and stock, a deal that could alter some key alliances in the online music business. The two companies announced an agreement Monday, under which RealNetworks will pay $17.3 million in …

What is Apple announcing on the 28th? Reuters thinks it knows: Apple Computer Inc. is readying to launch an online service that will cut straight to the core of digital music distribution, winning the praise of some record executives who see it is as a weapon against online piracy. Music …

I often find David Brooks to be rather smug and self-possessed, but this time he is the hammer and fantasists are the nail: There is first the dream palace of the Arabists. In this dream palace, it is always the twelfth century, and every Western incursion into the Middle East …

Guitarist singer, songwriter dies from complications of diabetes at 69: Mr. King, who lived in New Orleans, was a flamboyant performer, singing with bluesy ease and playing guitar solos that curled and sliced across the rolling New Orleans beat. He recorded hundreds of songs that were rooted in both the …

The great sultry, angry jazz singer died at her home in France. All Music Guide has a fine bio: Of all the major singers of the late 20th century, Nina Simone is one of the hardest to classify. She’s recorded extensively in the soul, jazz, and pop idioms, often over …

As I mentioned a couple of days ago, I am all for the War on Terror, but I am increasingly dissatisfied with its domestic ramifications, especially as relates to the erosion of civil liberties under the Patriot Act and the proposed follow up dubbed Patriot Act 2. Equally bad, the …

Apple has SOME kind of blockbuster announcemnt in the works for April 28: Apple Computer Inc. informed MacCentral by special invitation Monday morning of an event the company will hold in San Francisco on Monday, April 28, 2003. While the invitation was not specific on exactly what the company would …

We mentioned last week Madonna’s attempt to thwart file sharing of songs from her forthcoming American Life album (out tomorrow) by placing “dummy” song files in P2P networks like Kazaa. The files are the same length as the songs being “spoofed” but are blank other than the charming 44 year-old …