National Public Radio

Pretty Talk 
in the Opera House

HBO Helped Build the Cable-TV Business. Now it MIght Help Break It

NPR on Sunday reported that HBO "doesn't mind" that its hit series Game of Thrones is widely pirated. But of course the network minds -- many of the estimated 1 million people who illicitly downloaded the first episode of the series' third season (and that was just the day after it was on TV) are po ... More >>

Prison Terms and Essay Grading: The Technology Gap Widens

On the front page of today's New York Times, there is a story about a software program that can instantly grade essays. The system was designed by EdX, a non-profit group founded by Harvard and MIT, and it is gaining momentum. Last year, Hewlett-Packard's grant-making arm held two contests, each w ... More >>

Sizzle & Fizzle: Highs and Lows from the Last Week in S.F. Music

We Review the SFJAZZ Center's Opening Night Concert Via Web Stream

By SEAN J. O'CONNELL SFJAZZ Opening Night Concert with McCoy Tyner, Chick Corea, Bill Frisell, Bill Cosby, and more Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2013 SFJAZZ Center via NPR web stream Despite not having had regular employment for the last year or so, I have had the opportunity to see Radiohead perform live ... More >>

The SFJAZZ Center's Opening Concert Is Streaming Live Tonight

It's open! The SFJAZZ Center, the West Coast's first facility dedicated to jazz performance and education, opened its doors on Monday, and with only a few hiccups, most of which are now resolved. So it's time to party. And even if you're not the gala-hopping VIP-type, you can witness performances b ... More >>

The Year In Vegan!

​Happy last Meatless Monday of the Year! Since it's the last day of the year, I thought it'd be nice to do a little round-up of animal victories from the year. Additionally, I know many people use the New Year as a time to try new things--say veganism, perhaps? Come on, Ne-Yo is doing it! So we ca ... More >>

Camper Van Beethoven: Show Preview

Sandy Hook Shooting: Technology and Law Should Serve Us, Not Control Us

On Friday, not long after the Sandy Hook shootings, NPR's political editor Ken Rudin took to Facebook to tell his followers: As tempting as it may be to once again debate guns and gun contro -- and try to come to grips with this madness -- we know nothing is going to change. The fault/blame for th ... More >>

Dead Kennedys Say After 14M YouTube Streams, They've Seen Too Few Dollars

It's supposed to work like this: Artists put their music up for streaming on YouTube, the site sells (annoying) ads around the content, and then splits the revenue with the artist according to some predetermined formula. So how much does YouTube owe artists? The site says it pays tens of millions o ... More >>

The CD Is 30 Years Old -- Long Live the CD

Thirty years ago today, Sony unveiled the first commercially available compact disc, Billie Joel's 52nd Street, designed for the Sony CD-101P, the first commercially available CD player. Since then, compact discs have grown from audiophile specialty to world-ruling music format to anachronistic punc ... More >>

Live Review, 9/10/12: Swans Reclaim No Wave from Hipsters at Regency Ballroom

Swans Monday, Sept. 10, 2012 Regency Ballroom You should know one thing in advance: A Swans show is not designed for your passive entertainment. In fact, it's less a concert than it is an endurance rally. They'd rather pummel you than please you -- and may the gods help you if you forgot your earpl ... More >>

Top 20 Reasons Why [Your Favorite Musical Artist] Is the Worst

20. Songs They write songs. Songs just suck. Songs are vapid and stupid and tired and derivative and corny and boring and stuff. Why do they even bother making songs? They should just do something else already. Jeez. 19. Some of their songs are even worse than their other songs. Which just goes to ... More >>

Investing in Buzz Is a Loser's Game

There will likely never again be anything quite like the dotcom boom-and-bust of the late '90s. But that doesn't mean that everybody learned their lesson about investing in companies with questionable business models -- or at least in those with outsized expectations for growth. It only means that t ... More >>

Todd Akin: Reaction to Rape Comment Shows the Real Power of Social Media

Social media is no doubt a powerful force. But in what ways? How does this power manifest itself? Some people, perhaps confused by the word "media," seem to think it's a replacement for dying traditional media outlets -- particularly newspapers -- despite there being zero evidence that this is takin ... More >>

Summer of the NPR Intern Shit Storms: What Austin Cooper's Public Enemy Essay Says About Taste

In many ways, pop culture in 2012 is more sophisticated than ever. Hit TV shows and movies boast plots that are more twisty-turny than was once allowed; the general public's understanding of what Joni Mitchell once called "the star-maker machinery" seems pretty thorough by now; and there seems less ... More >>

Meat Week, Creamsicles, and Vegan Pizza Day, Hurrah!

​ OMG VEGAN PIZZA DAY IS TOMORROW! Get excited, guys. Here's the lowdown from my beloved Laura at Vegansaurus: 1. Beretta: Deal of the Vegan Pizza Day=broccolini, onion, ginger, olives, capers, and tomatoes, delightful vegan cheese. Plus, COCKTAILS. Love, love, love! 2. Patxi's: Buy one, get one ... More >>

Sizzle & Fizzle: Highs and Lows from the Last Week in S.F. Music

Murder, She Wrote

Top 8 Reasons to Pay For Music, Even If You're Young, Broke, Lazy, and Indifferent

Over the weekend, NPR intern Emily White raised a stink -- and a very forceful retort from musician David Lowery -- by saying she'd purchased almost no music in her life, even though she considered herself a huge music fan. She meant to illustrate her doubt that young people will ever be convinced t ... More >>

Desperate Newspapers Pin Hopes on Annoyed Readers

News publishers have always treated readers like commodities -- because that's what readers are. The real customers for publishers aren't readers, but advertisers. Readers are the product. It's not quite that simple, of course, and more enlightened publishers treat readers with respect and cover the ... More >>

The Worst Moments from SXSW 2012

The last few days, Village Voice Media's indefatigable music staff has been regaling you with stories of the best from SXSW 2012. In the midst of these discoveries, we've been culling another list: the worst shit. The acts that ranged from huge bore-fests to downright lame. Below, you'll find our cr ... More >>

SOPA, Limbaugh, Komen: This Is What Happens When the Mob is Right

​There is far too much cheerleading for the "wisdom of crowds." The undiscerning among us, often motivated by an understandable (if often mindless) disgust with institutions, tend to employ buzzwords like "crowdsourcing" and to preach the idea that "the people" are always right even if "the people ... More >>

Blades, Flames, and Boobs

Sorry, Twitter, if You're in the Media Business, You're a Media Company

​Given how Silicon Valley moguls flee from the term "media company," you'd almost think it was as bad as "child-porn merchant." But whether they like it or not, companies like Google, Facebook, and Twitter are media companies. They don't have precisely the same business models as News Corp., Disne ... More >>

Craig Finn's Clear Heart Full Eyes: A First Listen

If I may make two predictions about Clear Heart Full Eyes, the solo debut from combustible, fan-friendly Hold Steady frontman Craig Finn, they are that: 1. It's not going to save rock 'n' roll. 2. It's not going to be a meta-narrative about how it doesn't save rock and roll. If the last Hold Stea ... More >>

There's No Trans Like PubTrans

Christopher O'Riley and Matt Haimovitz: Show Preview

Cup Noodles: Don't Let Them Near Your Child

Jonathan KauffmanInstant noodles, arranged in order of risk.Instant noodle cups -- not the kind in packets, the kind you pour hot water into -- aren't just 69-cent easy meals, NPR reported this week. They're burn delivery devices, responsible for putting kids in the hospital every day. The steep s ... More >>

Your Seasonal Produce Guide: Pomegranates

JOE MARINARO/flickr​ A weekly series on what to do with your farmers' market impulse buys and CSA box surprises. Pomegranates have been celebrated throughout history, especially in the Middle East, and they hold significance for many world religions and cultures. NPR even calls them "the ... More >>

An Anthropologist Discounts the Paleo Diet

Sure, it looks tasty, but it wasn't all our Paleolithic ancestors ate.​You've read about them: The dudes who eat raw meat just like the cavemen, the women who claim their genes clamor only for turkey, kale chips, and sugar-free soda. There's even a magazine devoted to "modern day primal living." O ... More >>

Contaminated Cantaloupes Killed 23 People. Why Not More?

llubomir / Shutterstock​According to an article yesterday in the Huffington Post, the Jensen Farms listeria outbreak has now killed 23 people and sent 116 to the hospital, making it America's deadliest case of foodborne illness in several decades. While the FDA investigates the farm to find out e ... More >>

Does Reality Television Help Viewers Lose Weight?

Could this be you if you watch The Biggest Loser?​For all the studies showing that watching reality television -- OK, all television -- makes us fatter, a new research study whose findings were just reported on Salt, NPR's new food blog, suggests that one kind of reality TV could help you lose wei ... More >>

Sizzle & Fizzle: Highs and Lows from the Last Week in S.F. Music

S.F.'s Girls Make Their TV Debut on Jimmy Fallon, with Backup Singers

Girls on TV Tuesday night.​ Musical performances on late-night shows are always a crapshoot, but San Francisco's Girls sounded great in their TV debut on Tuesday's Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. The band played two songs from its new (out this week!) album, Father, Son, Holy Ghost -- "Honey Bun ... More >>

Organic Chicken Actually Proven to Be Safer

Alarmed by the recent outbreak of drug-resistent salmonella in ground turkey, which killed one Californian woman? The way to protect yourself might be to buy organic. Yesterday, NPR reported that a University of Maryland study found that big organic chicken farms have much lower levels of antibio ... More >>

Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria and Factory Farms, the Angry Birds Cookbook

​Today's notes on national stories, local trends, random tastes, and other bycatch dredged up from the food media. 1. Antibiotics and Factory Farms. This weekend, the august Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times wrote an op-ed spelling out the links between antibiotics given to animals raised in ... More >>

This Is Post-Rock

Tune-Yards, Citay, Among DIY Artists Who Celebrate Our Band Could Be Your Life Anniversary: Listen

​ Local DIY acts tUnE-yArDs and Citay joined up with other indie acts at the Bowery Ballroom on Sunday to celebrate the 20th anniversary of indie/punk bible Our Band Could Be Your Life. In order to give a proper homage to the revered tome, and the bands that inspired it, each artist covered so ... More >>

Cults Play a Short, Sweet Set at the Independent

Cults at the Independent last night.​ Cults Magic Kids April 14, 2011 @ The Independent Better than: Joining the punchline. It was short but sweet. Like most, I went in to the Cults show at the Independent last night knowing a mere three songs by the headlining band: "Most Wanted "(aka that ... More >>

Hear All of Tune-Yards' Amazing New Album on NPR Now

Tune-Yards' Merrill Garbus​We've already sung the praises of Tune-Yards new album, w h o k i l l, here once before. But today, the whole album's up on NPR for you to stream. We recommend you do. With w h o k i l l, Oakland-based Merril Garbus has blown way past her project's lo-fi roots and i ... More >>

This Just In: The U.S. House of Representatives Hates NPR

National Public Radio is good. Very good. They entertain us with such shows as This American Life, inform us with Morning Edition, and drop some musical knowledge on All Songs Considered. But the United States House of Representatives doesn't feel the same way: today it voted to cut off government f ... More >>

Hey Lazybones Musicians! Record An Album This Month!

​Welcome to February, the runt of months. Just four weeks until March -- four boring, bitter weeks of Valentines and Presidents and groundhogs and Sri Lankan independence. Thanksgiving and Christmas and National Novel Writing Month are all more than half the year away. If only there was a way to u ... More >>

Standing Up for Bullies, Taking the Rest of the Beef Out of 'Taco Meat'

​SFoodie's roundup of tips, news, and rants from the week in animal-free eats. • Uh, did you know that if you live in S.F., you can get a free spay or neuter at the SFSPCA for your dog or cat during the month of February? TRUE FACT. So if any of you are running around with companion animals ... More >>

WikiLeaks Reporting Error Corrected, Thanks To Former Chronicle Scribe Henry Norr

If I see you guys make one more mistake, I'm gonna blow my top​Henry Norr, an ex-San Francisco Chronicle technology reporter who was fired for his anti-war kibitzing, has turned his energies to sideline critiques of the media.Calling Norr "one persistent listener," NPR Ombudsman Alicia Shepard sai ... More >>

'Fruitcake That Ate New Jersey' Has San Francisco Origins

It's got Trenton! East Orange is next! ​We all learned in school that multiplying two negatives together makes a a positive. Turns out it can be true in real life, too. You just need one more ingredient: Publicity. For instance, a recent discussion on NPR radio's Weekend Edition noted that the fru ... More >>

Elfin Magic

Stream Brian Eno's Time-Warped New Album, Small Craft On a Milk Sea

​Small Craft On a Milk Sea, the 25th (!) solo album from oblique strategist and art-tronic music O.G. Brian Eno, isn't out until next week -- on Warp Records, in a partnering of great karmic appropriateness -- but you can stream it now courtesy of NPR's First Listen. At the aural equivalent of fi ... More >>

Will Supermarkets Be Irrelevant in the Future?

allaboutgeorge/FlickrMap of community gardens and urban farmland in West Oakland.​The awesome Raj Patel turned up on NPR this morning, withstanding a brief grilling by affably-voiced Steve Inskeep about "Five Things You Don't Know About Supermarkets," Patel's piece in the latest Foreign Policy ... More >>

Help the Kitchen Sisters Name Their New Series and Win a Wild Boar Dinner

Kitchen SistersThe Sisters need a little help.​NPR's Kitchen Sisters -- radio trailblazers at finding hidden kitchens near and far-- are launching a new project. There's a contest to name it (wild boar dinner with Angelo Garro anyone?) and chance to submit your very own story about girls. And ... More >>