» The Media painted White: In an interview with The Seattle Times, Jack White tells us that he is currently in the middle of three new records about which he would not elaborate. White also mentioned collaborations with Beck in the works. If you're anxious, you can see him play Elvis in "Walk Hard."

» The British government's Ministry of Hip (Minihip, for short) said that they will preserve classic venues across London, one of which--Astoria --is being torn down to make room for a Crossrail station. They will also be preserving other, unspecified, venues. The article ends by saying that many non music-only venues are closing down, and that more people are going to concerts, however that works out.

» MTV is in the process of making a High School Musical-type movie aimed at audiences a little older. It will use the newly-classic HSM's producers, and will have to live up to expectations set by MTV's first musical: Carmen: A Hip Hopera (2001).

» Ch-ch-check it for free: Legacy recordings is putting together an auditory history of Bob Dylan, hosted by Singer/songwriter and poet Patti Smith. The audio is available for free in the form of 7 1/2 minute podcasts. There are ten so far.

» Mac-mongering groups have begun to report the results of a story that says that Mac users are three times more likely to pay for the music they listen to than their PC counterparts. The article and study are ambiguous about a causal relationship; they don't address whether Mac users buy more music because they have macs, or they buy macs because they are a certain type of person who buys music too. Especially since iTunes is available and works well on windows, I'm unscientifically inclined to think that the divide come to this: Mac users are more likely to buy music because Mac models are rarely the entry-level, lower end model that people go for. This means that the mac user would, on average, have more money to spend than the PC user, which, at least at surface, seems like a likely explanation.

» DRM, The Big Four, and who owns what, in short: "Watch for compilation CDs that could only exist in the dreams of a music fan": Incoherence and "news" packaged by RIAA; DMCA hurts those it's meant to help (and everyone else)?; XM agrees to give Universal a check for all players that can record and playback audio from XM programming; Kill it or Sell it?: DJ Drama and the mixtape... drama; Talking Heads' Byrne advises youngsters and old alike on how to survive the new music landscape; Muse digs the In Rainbows approach; House/Senate: Old-school radio might have to pay performance rights fees like its interweb bretheren.

» Famous people on famous people (Mostly Ike Turner), in short: Half-of-Steely-Dan-man Donald Fagen on Ike Turner at length; Head-in-lightbulb crazyman Phil Spector on Tina Turner's apparent ubiquity; Little Richard et al. on Ike; "Stay strong, baby girl.": Mary J. Blige on B. Spears' preggers sis (whose mother's book on parenting will now be delayed).

» The Rest, In short: Beck announced the release of a deluxe version of Odelay; Lily Allen pregnant with Chemical Brother Ed Simons; Amy Winehouse arrested, questioned and released for interference in Husband's trial; Lou Reed will speak at SXSW this year; Burt Bacharach, The Band, and others will receive lifetime achievement Grammy awards this February; Tabloids report that you may in the future be able to own a stuffed version of an Oasis member; Radiohead does the math and tells fans to be more efficient on their way to and from gigs; Kenny G, who has confused people about the term "Jazz" ever since he started playing his non-jazz crap, will now attempt to make everyone think of his soft, soothing horn every time they hear "latin"; The Eagles decide not to play the Super Bowl.

» Obits, in short: Jazz (and more) Producer Joel Dorn, 65 (heart attack); Glastonbury co-founder Arabella Spencer-Churchill, 58 (pancreatic cancer); Jazz Pianist Oscar Peterson, 82; lead singer of Australian band The Red Shore "Damο" (car wreck).