thesmokinggun.com has an entire section devoted to showing concert riders and the sometimes ridiculous demands made. They now have the entire document for Iggy Pop and the Stooges and it is one of the more entertaining reads I have had in a while (present magazine excluded, of course). It is 18 pages but is worth looking through all of them.

http://bit.ly/GPYn5

We've recently had a shopcast on the Kinks Collection (massive great, BTW - both the 'cast and the set) and discussion in the regular podcast about artists raising money in new ways.

Now there's a documentary made by a fellow who is trying to get the Kinks to reunite. He is looking to raise money from individuals to complete editing.

I guess it's karma to join these topics together in one link...

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/775822192/do-it-again-one-mans-quest...

I'm more convinced than ever that the measure of a truly great songwriter is when their songs are covered in a new way and you can find something totally different to appreciate about it.

Certainly the latest Shopcast spoke about how songs get formed in the studio but there's plenty of evidence that the great writers present the nucleus to build on.

There are plenty of Lennon/McCartney covers that are done in a different style that show a whole new light on a song (See "It Was Forty Years Ago Today" for 2 CDs worth of examples) and the Byrds doing Dylan go without saying.

What I'm currently listening to, however, is Pat DiNizio (of Smithereens fame) doing a disc worth of Buddy Holly songs in different styles.

What other examples can people come up with? The same artist re-interpreting doesn't count. It has to be someone new covering a song that opened it up in a new way for you.

Watched All Together Now, a documentary about the staging of the Cirque Du Soleil show, Love, featuring the music of the Beatles. It is very honest about some of the difficulties they suffered through with surviving members and spouses reactions to the ideas and the staging.

For me the best part was the premiere. Paul and Ringo were seated next to each other and there are many shots of the two of them reacting to the show.

It was very clear that they were loving the music. In a voiceover Paul even admits that he turned to Ringo at one point and said "We were a fucking great band".

How cool is it to hear him say that now and to see the both of them just experiencing joy at their work. Somehow I think it may have been awhile since they were able to do that. It certainly brought a catch to my throat.

More folks who have maintained blogs (or continue to maintain a blog),such as Stephen Fry, are establishing a Twitter account www.twitter.com and updating them on a regular basis.

Blog entries just seem to call for more content (as measured by word count) and hopefully a more thought out construction of thoughts and/or ideas. You also need access to a computer and your blogging account or the software you use to update your website's blog entries.

On the other hand, a tweet can simply be "I am at xxx" and can be entered via your cell phone. It can be updated many times a day, easily.

Will we see a transition away from blogs to tweets?