OK, Stephin Merrit, you win

Because I can’t say no to a well-developed conceit. It looks like my emusic downloads are spoken for for the next month or two.

They Might Be Giants give Tom Lehrer a run for his money

Via @xenijardin: BoingBoing video presents They Might Be Giants singing about the chemical elements. They go deeper than, if not as broad as, the original gold standard; for which see below.

Classical music’s online renaissance

New Yorker music critic Alex Ross notes cautiously that classical music is doing quite well in the dot-com age, propelled by the long tail effect, greater ease of entry via music blogs and iTunes, and more communication between classical nerds. In the course of it, he links to a variety of classical blogs and resources – I’m going to spend some time following up.