Jerry Wexler died, aged 91, a titan of the music business. Working at Billboard in the 1940s, he came up with the term “rhythm and blues.” He spent most of his professional life at Atlantic Records, where he produced Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin and many others. He signed Led Zeppelin to Atlantic in the US and in later years produced albums by Bob Dylan, George Michael, Dire Straits and others. From the obituary in the NY Times:

Mr. Wexler was something of a paradox. A businessman with tireless energy, a ruthless streak and a volatile temper, he was also a hopeless music fan. A New York Jew and a vehement atheist, he found his musical home in the Deep South, in studios in Memphis and Muscle Shoals, Ala., among Baptists and Methodists, blacks and good old boys.

“He was a bundle of contradictions,” said Tom Thurman, who produced and directed a documentary about Mr. Wexler in 2000. “He was incredibly abrasive and incredibly generous, very abrupt and very, very patient, seemingly a pure, sharklike businessman and also a cerebral and creative genius.”

Elsewhere …

Warner Bros’ decision to push back Harry Potter 6 to next July cuts Electronic Arts’ profit outlook for this year by $150 million.

A U.S. Appeals court says that just because software is open source and freely distributed doesn’t mean it can’t be protected under the law. This is huge for anyone who relies on Creative Commons licensing.

After all these years of waiting, it’s finally happening. Neil Young’s Archives is set for release on November 3rd, as a 10 disc Blu-Ray or DVD set. September 29th will see another Neil Young release, “Sugar Mountain,” no details on this but Uncut thinks it’s a concert in L.A. from 1971.

My namesake, Spike from Top Chef, opened his new restaurant in DC, Good Stuff Eatery. The Washington Post rates it good but not great.

That said, the Blazin’ Barn burger, with pickled daikon, carrots, mint and Thai basil and cilantro, was about as refreshing as a burger can be. (“Thai McDonald’s,” my companion said, meaning it as a compliment.) The strawberry milkshake (we got the perfectly sized 16-ounce “Mini Moo”) was summer in a plastic cup. That bacon on our Farmhouse Bacon Cheese burger was indeed awesome.

Mark the date September 17. That’s one possible date that HTC will launch the first phone powered by Google’s new Android operating system. Given all the problems reported with Apple’s 3G iPhone, is there a new 800 pound gorilla in the house?

I’ve installed Simplify Media on my PC and iPhone. Free (for now at least) it’s supposed to let me stream everything on my PC’s iTunes (and WinAmp and my My Music folder) to my phone via 3G or WiFi anywhere in the world. And you can share with up to 30 friends. I’ve got 19,927 songs in iTunes at the moment … anyone want to share?

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I can often be found having dinner at Dusk Till Dawn. You may not know this but every night they offer a 3 course set dinner for $105 – soup or salad, choice of 3 main courses, dessert, coffee or tea, glass of wine. It ain’t gourmet but it’s tasty enough and quite reasonable for the price.

On the other hand … last night there with 3 other people. We place our orders for food and drinks. The waitress stands there, doesn’t write anything down. For my gf and I, I order prawns wrapped in bacon, Thai meatballs, Tandoori chicken salad, ice lemon tea for me, Carlsberg for her. And I just know from the look on the waitress’ face that we ain’t getting what we ordered.

After 15 minutes, the prawns come out. Five minutes later, she brings us a dish of prawns on a skewer. Um, nope, meat balls? She takes the prawns back. Eventually the meat balls show up. “And we’ve got a third dish coming, right?” “What?” Never mind, cancel it. Because sure enough, a few minutes later, someone else comes out from the kitchen carrying the skewered prawns – “here, have this on the house.”

There’s this new invention called paper? And pencil? Sheesh.

And now, sigh, two new problems noted with the car last night, off to try to get them taken care of today.

Hongkie Town
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