Not much in the way of “curation” today, so you’re left with us, the anonymous junior vice president and letter opener (as in a guy who opens letters) and our skewed/trademark take on the best of the rest of the Web.
H.R. of the Bad Brains played a set (as H.R.) at Joe Nelson’s Thanksgiving Jam earlier in the week. Joe brought H.R. out there and the host kept an incredible diary.
Keeping on the hardcore tip, pause, an old coreman from Detroit reminisces about the early — late to some — days, and, among other things, Ratbones’ girlfriend. Belgian Trumbull contributor and disco fan Spoiler was interviewed by the Cocal Posse idiots.
Dame Shirley Bassey, 2Pac, Muse, and Fleet Foxes. That’s a list of modern artists on a mixtape the Vatican gave to MySpace Music for its U.K. launch on Thursday. And just in case you missed that last part, MySpace Music only JUST launched in the U.K. What had the kids been listening to, the first 30 seconds on iTunes?
One of Marilyn Monroe’s old gal pals is the source of a silent 16mm roll featuring the actress “just sitting around” in a Jersey apartment (“Gretchen’s,” not Marilyn’s) in the late ’50s. The film is set to hit eBay this week. The man in charge of its sale keeps an impressive inventory of historical documents and photographs.
If you’re into the (very) dry side of sports, you might have heard of the case of American Needle vs. the NFL. It’s at the Supreme Court now. After losing its ability to print up unofficial merch, American Needle challenged NFL Properties (the NFL imprint that takes care of the league’s and its teams’ licensing contracts, among other things) on grounds that the consolidation was in violation of antitrust laws and a conspiracy against outside interests. The NFL won on appeal, the courts saying it could act as a single unit in such matters. Needle disagreed, appealed, and the case is about to be decided on for good. If the NFL wins the Supreme Court decision, they — and every other sports league — will be a single entity, and not competing teams. If that happens, leagues can set their prices on everything, from labor to merchandise. It would be a very big deal were the NFL to win there — it welcomed Needle’s Supreme Court appeal, which appellate winners apparently rarely do — since it will have a lot more leverage over its product. ESPN published a good article on the subject this summer, and Prof. Michael McCann, who is part of the Sports Law blog, but does not live in a city with a Major League Baseball team, has a paper coming out on the subject that goes hard. Lester Munson, who has a sick name and wrote the first ESPN article, wrote a newer one this month, and has a few more linked within.
Someone in Philly turned in an incredibly ignorant observation about the new Blacklisted record; another Philly stalwart gave an equally impassioned, but less embarrassing, take on other things. Some guy collected a bunch of Altercation songs, and another set up a sneaker restoration kit. Shootout to COCAL POSSE. Not a bad week.