Michael Gowan

How to watch iOS videos on your HDTV

2011-05-18T08:05:00.000-07:00

With a simple cable, you can view your iOS device videos on a much larger screen.

Get better HDTV audio with a soundbar

2011-02-16T08:06:00.000-08:00

Looking for better sound from your HDTV with fewer wires? A soundbar is a single audio unit that incorporates the center, left, and right speakers. Paired with a subwoofer, soundbars provide the aural oomph lacking from flat screen HDTVs in a pretty package.

Read the article at Macworld.com.

Six ways to stream Netflix to your HDTV

2010-11-15T08:08:00.000-08:00

Time was the only way you could access Netflix’s Watch Instantly feature was on a Windows PC. Now you only need to watch on a computer (Intel Macs included) if you want to. There are now many different ways to enjoy streaming Netflix content where you *really* want to see it--on your TV.

Read the article on Macworld.com.

Presentation: Real-World Content Strategy

2010-07-01T08:01:00.000-07:00

I presented to TriUPA on how we practice content strategy at Duke. We had a great conversation about this and I look forward to having more content related presentations in the group.

Download my presentation.

Slideshow: Healing Gardens of Duke Medicine

2008-07-14T06:40:00.000-07:00

Private, natural spaces provide benefits for patients and visitors alike. Duke is proud of the gardens that we offer, both as places of beauty and of respite.

Read full article

Hot, Hot, Hot: Having a Heat Emergency

2008-07-03T06:41:00.000-07:00

Temperatures and humidity are soaring. It’s easy to become thirsty, tired, and drenched in sweat from mowing the lawn and working in the garden -- or just walking down the street.

Read the article at dukehealth.org

Share your videos online

2008-05-27T07:15:00.000-07:00

Video is an extremely effective way to communicate with others—whether the video is a demo of your startup’s new product, a video blog of your opinions on the latest iPod, or just footage from your daughter’s birthday party for the grandparents who couldn’t make the trip.

But how can you easily share your video with the world once it’s ready? Even if you have your own Web site, those large files require lots of storage and bandwidth. So why not let someone else do the hard work for you?

Read the article at macworld.com

Duke School of Nursing Web site

2008-05-01T06:52:00.000-07:00

I provided the information architecture and content strategy for this site:

nursing.duke.edu

Bugs Be Gone: Tips for Dealing with Insect Bites

2008-04-29T06:43:00.000-07:00

Shoo, fly! Spring and summer bring the urge to get outside and enjoy the warmth and sunshine. But they can also come with an itch -- one caused by bug bites.

Read the article at dukehealth.org

Allergies in the Air

2008-03-13T06:46:00.000-07:00

Does the sight of leaves budding on trees cause you to cower? Are you afraid of the fragrant flowers that are emerging all around?

For allergy sufferers those and other signs of spring mean stuffed noses, red eyes, and other discomforts. DukeHealth.org’s resources can help you weather the worst of it -- or at least understand why you feel so miserable.

Read the article at dukehealth.org

Estancia Beef

2008-01-23T06:36:00.000-08:00

I wrote the copy for this site:

Estancia Beef

Stream Programs to Your Mac

2007-09-24T06:00:00.000-07:00

Uh-oh—when your DVR lost power during the season finale of Heroes, you thought you’d have to wait for the DVD release to find out if Sylar blew up New York after all.

But you didn’t need to worry; the Internet could have saved you when your television catastrophe struck—and you didn’t have to download episodes illegally or buy them from the iTunes Store. To catch up on the breakthrough drama, all you had to do was head over to NBC.com, where you could have streamed video of that final episode (along with every episode from the first season).

This past season, many television networks—not just NBC—finally began to embrace the Web fully. All the major ones offer streaming episodes on their Web sites. But that’s not the only place you can find free video to stream to your Mac—many sites offer content, both live and on demand. While the selection, quality, and viewing experience won’t yet replace your living-room TV set, if you’re seeking some video entertainment to fill your leisure time, all you need is a Mac, an Internet connection, and a browser pointed in the right direction.

Read the article at macworld.com

Duke Medicine Web site

2007-07-23T06:51:00.000-07:00

I wrote and edited the copy for this site:

dukemedicine .org

How to Read a Software or Hardware Review

2007-06-27T06:52:00.000-07:00

When it comes time to buy new software or upgrade your computer, you know the drill. Before you lay your money down, you perform your due diligence: gather options, read reviews, look at prices, and read some more reviews.

In many cases, the reviews are the deciding factor. The nuggets of information from people who have laid their hands on a product can help cut through the dry specs and puffed-up marketing materials offered by product manufacturers.

But are you evaluating the reviews you read with the same scrutiny you would have for the product itself? Not all opinions should be considered equal, nor given the same weight in helping you make a decision. Can you trust what you're being told? To be sure of the advice you're getting, take into account the following tips and considerations.

Read the article at techsoup.org

Eight Ways to Go Green

2007-05-03T05:59:00.000-07:00

You don’t have to drive a Prius, have a worm bin out back, or keep a picture of Al Gore under your pillow to be concerned about saving energy and natural resources. I think everyone can agree that saving money is good. It just so happens that reducing the amount of electricity your computer, monitor, printer, and other electronic devices use is both environmentally friendly and economical. It’s also easy when you know how. Here are eight ways to do that and more.

Read the article at macworld.com

The Mac Media Center

2006-12-22T06:02:00.000-08:00

For years now, digital entertainment fans have been dreaming of a Digital Media Center—a unified collection of devices that would enable them to enjoy all their Mac-based music, videos, photos, and games from any room of the house, no matter where that media is stored. Ever since articulating its digital hub vision back in 2001, Apple has slowly been assembling the pieces of that media center. The iTV—when it’s released sometime in early 2007 (and which won’t actually be called iTV when it finally arrives)—will wirelessly connect your home entertainment hardware to your Mac, and it could be the final piece in that puzzle.

Read the article at macworld.com

Duke Office of Licensing and Ventures

2006-07-23T07:12:00.000-07:00

I was project manager and content strategist for this site:

olv.duke.edu

Ghirardelli Chocolate

2006-07-23T06:48:00.000-07:00

Working with Marker Seven, I part of a team that wrote and edited the copy for this site:

ghirardelli.com

DukeHealth.org Locations section

2006-07-23T06:38:00.000-07:00

I created the wireframes, supervised user testing, and wrote the copy for this section on DukeHealth.org:

Locations

Little Treblemakers

2005-08-01T05:50:00.000-07:00

Satellite systems - five tiny speakers and a subwoofer - have long been the fast food of the home theater market. They're cheap and easy but not very satisfying. Now several high-end stereo makers are offering mini 5.1-surround sound kits that claim to deliver superior audio. Do they succeed? Somewhat. These rigs still don't have the acoustic range of full-size speakers, but they produce crisper, richer sound than mass-market models. And they look cooler, too.

Read the article at wired.com

Blue Shield Apply for a Plan

2005-07-23T06:35:00.000-07:00

I wrote the copy for this application microsite:

Apply for a Plan

Video Chat: Put a Face to Your Communications

2005-06-15T05:51:00.000-07:00

EngenderHealth, a nonprofit organization that champions reproductive health throughout the world, has headquarters in New York, but most of its field workers are scattered throughout Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

Those geographical divides can create gaps in communication and leave field workers feeling isolated. So how do they effectively and inexpensively communicate under those circumstances?

By taking advantage of the video features of instant messaging software, EngenderHealth's New York team can see and talk with workers around the world using video chat. Putting a face with a voice brings a human touch back to communication.

Read the article at techsoup.org

Podcasting: A New Voice on the Net

2005-05-16T05:54:00.000-07:00

If you've ever wanted to speak directly to your audience, here's your chance. While blogs give anyone with something to say a means to publish their views on the Web, podcasting gives those with a computer and Internet access a chance to create and post their own radio broadcasts.

Read the article at techsoup.org

Home on the iPod

2005-03-24T09:47:00.000-08:00

The iPod is far more versatile than most people think. Not only can it store and play thousands of songs, it can also serve as a portable hard drive (after all, once you get past the pleasing exterior, that’s essentially what it is).

What benefit is this to you? The iPod can be a handy way to take your computer with you, sans laptop. If you transfer your personal settings to the iPod, you make any computer feel like your computer. And when trouble strikes, a properly configured iPod can put a cranky Mac back on its feet.

Read article at macworld.com

A Podcast of Your Own

2005-02-17T09:49:00.000-08:00

You’ve got something to say. You’ve got a voice made for radio. You’ve got much better tastes than a ClearChannel programmer. What you don’t have is your own radio show or network to get your message out.

That’s where podcasting comes in. As I explained in Podcasting: Hear What the Buzz is About, a podcast is an audio-based blog that you post on the Web and as an attachment to an RSS feed. Listeners then use an RSS aggregator such as iPodder or iPodderX to subscribe to your show. When you post a new file, the aggregator downloads it and can automatically sync it with a portable player, making your show ready to take on the road.

Being a consumer of podcasts is all well and good, but why sit in the audience when you can be on stage? Becoming a podcaster requires only a few simple tools: You’’ll need a computer and Internet connection, a microphone and some software to capture and edit your audio, a way to compress the file, and server space to host the file. Here’s how to put them all to good use.

Read article at macworld.com

Podcasting: Hear What the Buzz Is About

2005-01-25T09:51:00.000-08:00

Unless you were born in the past week, you’ve heard about podcasting, the new audio-based blogging phenom that’s sweeping the Web. And just how popular is podcasting? Even Apple’s Vice President of Marketing, Phil Schiller, is wild about it. Approached at this January’s Macworld Expo in San Francisco, Schiller said enthusiastically, “It’s a fun way to get more programming on your iPod. I love it.”

I heard it straight from Phil’s mouth—via my iPod—thanks to the Wizards of Technology’s podcast of the encounter. Download show number 20 to hear it for yourself.

With podcasting, you can hear what anyone with a mic, a computer, and an Internet connection has to say. And you can listen in when you choose to rather than rearrange your day to accommodate someone else’s programming schedule.

If you aren’t hip to the latest thing in digital audio, don’t worry, you can easily get up to speed. Here’s everything you need to know to join the legion of podcast listeners.

Read article at macworld.com

The Audience Is Listening

2004-11-01T05:48:00.000-08:00

The newest home-theater-in-a-box kits fill an audio gap you probably didn't even know existed. DTS ES and Dolby Digital EX formats add a sixth channel (rear center) to traditional five-speaker surround sound, letting you hear conversations and explosions directly behind you. And while many current DVDs don't take advantage of this boost, it's the future of cinema, both at home and at the multiplex. When choosing your rig, remember it must handle video smoothly while emphasizing what you want most in audio: theater-style impact, high-quality music, or something in between.

Read the article at wired.com

Digital Music Superguide

2004-06-01T06:03:00.000-07:00

Thanks to iTunes and the iPod, music has become an integral part of the Mac life. Those two products have helped displace the stacks of CDs most of us have been amassing for the past 15 years.

The benefits are clear. Digital music files take up very little storage space on your Mac; allow you to search, categorize, and play your music in new and exciting ways; and are portable. And if you're ready to go beyond prerecorded music, Apple's GarageBand app puts you in the studio to make your own tunes.

To help you get the most from your music, we've put together a package with insights on ripping and organizing your music collection. We'll also show you how to pump the sound all around the house, beyond the limitations of your Mac's tinny speakers or your iPod's headphones. And you'll discover how to create your own songs with GarageBand.

Read the article at macworld.com

Li'l Cap'n Travis: In All Their Splendor

2004-05-26T09:09:00.000-07:00

Rock doesn't have to aspire. It's just fine hanging out in a bar at two in the afternoon, sipping beer, and watching Oprah. Austin-based Li'l Cap'n Travis realizes this, and revels gleefully in boozy derivations of classic and country rock on its third album, ... In All Their Splendor.

Read review at eastbayexpress.com

Gutbucket: Dry Humping the American Dream

2004-05-04T09:11:00.000-07:00

Jazz wants to be free, and it's taking every other genre with it. Ornette Coleman broke most constraints that bound jazz to a structure, freeing the music to go anywhere it pleases. Miles Davis brought rock into the fold and created fusion. Now, jump ahead thirty years, and you get Gutbucket. Along with bands such as Garage à Trois (featuring Charlie Hunter) and Garaj Mahal, Gutbucket mashes free jazz, jam band rock, funk, heavy metal, and more into a fusion for the 21st century. It's like Ornette jamming with Iron Maiden and Sonic Youth.

Read review at eastbayexpress.com

The Bad Plus: Give

2004-04-07T09:13:00.000-07:00

The Bad Plus made a splash last year with its debut, These Are the Vistas, by playing jazz with the gusto of rock stars. David King's big drums drove the rhythm behind Reid Anderson's double bass and Ethan Iverson's grand piano, creating an avant-rock fusion. The guys covered songs like "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and "Heart of Glass," and they did it with an ironic nudge-nudge-wink-wink.

Read review at eastbayexpress.com

Preservation Hall Jazz Band: Best of the Early Years; The Hot Four with Duke Dejan; Shake That Thing

2004-02-04T09:15:00.000-08:00

Preservation Hall is synonymous with New Orleans jazz. You remember: That's where Louis Armstrong blew everyone's mind on the shores of the Mississippi and Jelly Roll Morton tickled the ivories not far from Bourbon Street. Well, not really. The venue only seems like it's been around since the birth of ragtime and the Dixieland sound -- it actually opened in 1961, dedicated to giving New Orleans jazz musicians a place to be heard. Regular performers at the hall formed the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and took that mission to the streets, touring the country.

Read review at eastbayexpress.com

Capture TV on DVD

2003-12-01T06:49:00.000-08:00

The latest DVD recorders are more versatile than your VCR, but getting the most from one isn't as simple as pushing 'record'.

Read the article at pcworld.com

Various Artists: Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues: A Musical Journey

2003-09-17T09:17:00.000-07:00

Ken Burns postulates that America is fundamentally about baseball, the founding fathers, and jazz. Martin Scorsese's artistic output suggests he has a less academic view: America is a country of brutes, gangs, and the blues. Marty might be closer to the truth. The director of Raging Bull and Gangs of New York takes on the blues in a series of documentaries airing on PBS beginning September 28; the series is accompanied by an astounding 26 CDs, including this five-disc set that covers the history of recorded blues.

Read review at eastbayexpress.com

The Heavenly States: The Heavenly States

2003-08-23T09:19:00.000-07:00

Unlike the stripped-down rawk coming out of NYC these days, Oakland's Heavenly States prefer a dense, layered wall of sound, with guitar upon guitar upon keyboard upon violin that build and drop and build again. It's in those layers that the band's multitude of influences fight it out. Its eponymous debut's confluence of styles borders on the absurd: Punk, new wave, arena rock, roots rock, heavy metal, emo ... if you can think of a rock subgenre from the last thirty years, it's here. I swear I even heard an Alan Parsons Project keyboard riff buried in there somewhere. Whatever you want to call it, I like it.

Read review at eastbayexpress.com

Various Artists: Johnny's Blues: A Tribute to Johnny Cash

2003-08-20T09:23:00.000-07:00

The Man in Black is too cool for just country. In his fifty-year career, Johnny Cash has cultivated the aura of a rock star, his baritone and black duds oozing with style and breaking the Gene Autry "singing cowboy" mold. He's even cool enough to cover Nine Inch Nails. But all that style can obscure the substance behind it -- Johnny's Blues brings Cash's songs to the fore, where they'll blow you away with their depth.

Read review at eastbayexpress.com

A Friendly Jazz Sideman?

2003-08-20T09:21:00.000-07:00

John Scofield needed someone who could keep an ungodly groove on a guitar, and do it quietly. A modern jazz guitar master with a Miles Davis stint on his résumé, Scofield was exploring the funk-based realm of acid jazz -- a genre that demands a tight rhythm. He'd just begun to earn a following among jam-band enthusiasts with his spacey, stretched-out groove compositions, and he needed a rhythm guitarist hot enough to handle it but cool enough not to overdo it.

He scoured New York looking for his man, but without much luck. So in early 2000, Scofield asked former Berkeley resident and fellow jazz guitarist Charlie Hunter for a recommendation.

Hunter directed him to Avi Bortnick, a Bay Area guitarist working in architectural acoustics. "Charlie Hunter said, 'This guy is the best rhythm guitar player in the world,'" Scofield recalls.

Read article at eastbayexpress.com

ISight: See and Be Seen

2003-08-05T06:44:00.000-07:00

Apple has a gift for taking existing technologies and making them more simple and elegant to use--and that talent has never been more evident than with the company's new $149 ISight Web camera. I tested the unit with the beta version of the company's IChat AV instant messaging program, and found it remarkably easy to use.

Read the article at pcworld.com

Gillian Welch: Soul Journey

2003-06-18T09:28:00.000-07:00

Gillian Welch paints portraits with her voice -- images in somber shades with weighty splashes and dour overtones. It's quite a moody mix. And while she claims her fourth album, Soul Journey, is the "sunniest" she's ever made, its slow and sparse sound belies her intentions.

Read review at eastbayexpress.com

Back in Blue

2003-06-18T09:25:00.000-07:00

The glory of electric blues filled Eli's Mile High Club. The elbow-to-elbow crowd rocked and sweated with headliner Joe Louis Walker. His howls were met with hoots of approval, and his lightning guitar licks left those hooters in stunned awe. Fans lined up outside, waiting for someone to leave so they could get in. And when local guitarists Craig Horton and Levi Lloyd sat in, things really got wild.

This isn't nostalgia -- it happened this month. Looks like Joe is right: You can have a lot of fun at the Mile High Club. Right now.

Eli's officially reopened on Saturday, June 6, and you'd never have known that Bay Area blues is at low tide. But it's true. Few blues clubs remain. The best of the Bay's blues artists are gone. And the remaining fans don't have many places to go.

Read article at eastbayexpress.com

Public Opinions: Inside User Reviews

2003-04-01T06:42:00.000-08:00

Mike Woznicki has been reviewing computer hardware, software, books, and videos on Amazon.com for the past five years. Woznicki, an IT manager and technical certification instructor based in Holland, Massachusetts, certainly knows his stuff. He is currently ranked number 11 among Amazon.com Top Reviewers, based on visitors' assessments of the helpfulness of his reviews.

But Woznicki isn't your typical reviewer. For one thing, he gets most of the products he reviews free from manufacturers. For another, he has reviewed more than 1500 products. Woznicki's situation brings up a couple of questions. Can receiving freebies influence his reviews? And can anyone really know that many different products well?

Read the article at pcworld.com

The Minus 5: Down with Wilco

2003-03-05T09:29:00.000-08:00

If you hadn't heard of indie popster Scott McCaughey's side project the Minus 5 before this year, that's because he hadn't yet collaborated with Wilco, and everything Wilco touches now glows with residual brilliance from Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Tweedy's first band Uncle Tupelo opened for McCaughey's main band Young Fresh Fellows in 1988, and they've been compadres ever since. After years of trying, they've brought their different styles together on record.

Read review at eastbayexpress.com

Doyle Bramhall: Fitchburg Street

2003-02-25T09:38:00.000-08:00

Doyle Bramhall began his music career on Fitchburg Street in Dallas, and on his album of the same name he applies a healthy slathering of Texas style to some rock, blues, and soul songs from his youth (and one of his own creations). It's a recipe for a raw, messy, and delicious delight for fans of rough-and-tumble bar band blues. Bramhall's style of Texas blues sounds a lot like Stevie Ray Vaughan, and with good reason: Bramhall influenced the Vaughan style, having co-wrote some of Vaughan's hits, including "Life by the Drop." While Vaughan played it as a soul-wrenching acoustic number on the posthumous The Sky Is Crying, Bramhall picks up the pace to make it a full-throttle rocker. Bramhall's voice is even reminiscent of Vaughan's on many tracks. His vocals are a joyful noise -- what he lacks in talent he makes up for with feeling. He sings with so much enthusiasm on "I'd Rather Be (Blind, Crippled & Crazy)" that you can't help but want to sing along. As befits a Texas blues album, each song features excellent guitar work, and the star guitar belongs to Bramhall's son, Doyle Bramhall II. Doyle the younger plays a mean rhythm guitar and his tone often sounds stolen directly from Vaughan. His shuffle playing on John Lee Hooker's "Dimples" is a dead ringer for Vaughan, while his interpretation of the Band of Gypsies' "Changes" shows that he has some imagination and style of his own. Bramhall's son plays on four tracks, and they shine the most, although the other guitarists and numerous musicians on the album (Bramhall has a lot of friends, it seems) play as tightly as any veteran bar band, held together by Bramhall's solid drumming. The only exception comes on "Sugar (Where'd You Get Your Sugar From)," where Dave Sebree's sloppy slide goes a bit too far out of tune (try a second take next time, guys). But that small misstep can't taint this fun journey through Bramhall's musical memories.

Review also available at allmusic.com

Chris Thomas King: Dirty South Hip-Hop Blues

2002-10-15T09:42:00.000-07:00

Chris Thomas King makes his stand on the final, hidden track of Dirty South Hip-Hop Blues. "This is the blues of the 21st century and I don't give a damn if you can't get with me," he raps over a funky guitar riff. True to his word, King is out to remake the blues in a postmodern image, like no one else is doing. He mashes blues with hip-hop, creating an original sound that sometimes mixes perfectly, often shows promise, and only rarely falls flat. There's no doubt King can play the blues. Just listen to the barebones and beautiful acoustic blues of "Hard Time Killing Floor Blues" (which he played on the soundtrack for O Brother Where Art Thou). His voice and guitar emote sorrow like Son House himself. He infuses those old-style blues qualities into the best of his postmodern blues. On "Revelations," he samples Son House and sings lyrics from Robert Johnson's "If I Had Possession Over Judgment Day," along with his own slide guitar and dance-club electronic beats. His update of "The Thrill Is Gone," called "The Thrill Is Gone From Here," features an uncanny B.B. King imitation on the fretboard, using it as a platform for a slick rap about the plight of urban life. While his best work is rooted in blues and adds hip-hop flavor, he swaps the combo on songs like "Welcome to da Jungle," supporting his old school rap with subtle blues tones. Unfortunately, King strays into a CCM vibe on the trite "Gonna Take a Miracle." A few other songs have neither blues grit nor hip-hop style, showing that 21st century blues is still a work in progress.

Review also available at allmusic.com

Harry Manx: Wise and Otherwise

2002-04-17T09:33:00.000-07:00

Harry Manx explores a different sound -- a cool East/West soup of acoustic blues with Indian influences; think Ravi Shankar meets Robert Johnson. The two styles mix beautifully on Wise and Otherwise, his second album. He tempers the passion of the blues with the meditative quality of a raga on The Gist of Madhuvanti / The Thrill Is Gone, his blend of an original Indian-style composition with B.B. King's classic. While his vocal range is limited, Manx plays slide guitar beautifully. Manx's tunes are full of emotion and they leave you feeling serene, which is just as appealing.

Review also available at eastbayexpress.com

Otis Taylor: Respect the Dead

2002-04-17T09:31:00.000-07:00

Otis Taylor plays a harsh and ardent kind of blues -- a heady mix of socially conscious lyrics, staccato singing style, and intense, reverb-laden guitar. On Respect the Dead, his third album, he continues to explore the seedy and unpleasant aspects of our world with songs like Ten Million Slaves (about the plight of Africans), as he did on his excellent previous album, White African. But he also lightens up a bit with the funky Jump Jelly Belly and the almost upbeat Just Live Your Life. The ethereal electric lead guitar of Eddie Turner adds depth and texture to Taylor's repetitive and catchy riffs, melding the modern with the traditional.

Review also available at eastbayexpress.com

Best DVD-Audio Players

2002-02-01T05:28:00.000-08:00

Think you're using your home theater to its fullest? Standard CDs aren't meant to be piped through a half-dozen surround-sound speakers. DVD-A is. The format mixes music to use all six channels, scattering rays of sound for you to bask in. And, all DVD-A players double as high-quality, progressive-scan video machines.

Read the article at wired.com

Cody Chestnutt: The Headphone Masterpiece

2002-01-01T09:40:00.000-08:00

Cody ChesnuTT's debut album, The Headphone Masterpiece, is what all pop/rock-soul-R&B-hip-hop hybrids should be: good, raw, fun, and funky. ChesnuTT mixes '60s-style rock with '70s soul and '90s hip-hop and R&B in an eclectic celebration of sound. This lo-fi gem was recorded in his bedroom and sounds like it; it's essentially a 36-track musical diary. He sings testosterone-driven songs of passion and tender tales of mental anguish with equal abandon. When he whispers, "I know my breakdown is on the way," on "My Women, My Guitars," you feel his impending fall. He plays almost all of the instruments and sings most of the vocals, and he's often out of tune and off-key, but that only adds to the emotion and recklessness of the album. He holds everything together with a few polished and catchy tracks that are scattered throughout. On "Looks Good in Leather," he sounds like Terence Trent D'Arby or Ben Harper, but with a style that's all Cody ChesnuTT. "The World Is Coming to My Party" is a full-fledged dance anthem, complete with a rafter-shaking groove that Prince would be proud of. He just as easily channels Curtis Mayfield on the smooth "Serve This Royalty," which showcases ChesnuTT's soulful voice and may be the finest track, combining his great grasp of groove with clever lyrics like, "We can crown kings in Adidas." ChesnuTT is as comfortable in the hip-hop world as he is in the rock and soul spheres. He lays down a funky rap on "War Between the Sexes," and few hardcore gangstas can match his misogyny on "Bitch I'm Broke." While a few songs lack ChesnuTT's charm, the misses don't disturb the groove enough to hinder the overall effect: a masterpiece, with or without headphones.

Review also available at allmusic.com

Just Outta Beta: Dataplay

2001-12-01T05:43:00.000-08:00

Industry's would-be CD killer

Read the article at wired.com

North Mississippi Allstars: 51 Phantom

2001-11-14T09:34:00.000-08:00

The North Mississippi Allstars emerged out of the Southern swampland in 2000 with Shake Hands with Shorty, a raw and brilliant debut that fused country blues with rock and a heavy dose of punk attitude. With 51 Phantom, brothers Luther and Cody Dickinson, along with bassist Chris Chew, have put together a formidable, if more polished, followup. Unlike their first album -- which featured covers of classics from Mississippi Fred McDowell, Junior Kimbrough, and R.L. Burnside -- the group wrote most of these songs themselves, and as a result, the cuts show their diverse influences. Pinning down those influences ain't easy, though -- alternately sounding like ZZ Top, AC/DC, Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Dead, Led Zeppelin, and a gospel ensemble, they slide easily between the down-and-dirty rock of "Sugartown" to the more melodic and gentle "Storm," then have no problem cranking it up again on songs like "Snakes in My Bushes." Luther Dickinson's vocals are weak in the tradition of many fine bluesmen, and it doesn't matter one bit. He sings and plays some seriously fuzzed-out guitar with great emotion, which is far more important than a five-octave range. Cody Dickinson's Bonham-like beats add pop even to cleaner tunes like the gospel classic "Freedom Highway" and their own gospel creation "Ship." But like the mysterious freight train that gives the album its name, the North Mississippi Allstars sound best when running at full steam, as they do with the nasty rockabilly swing of "51 Phantom."

Review also available at eastbayexpress.com

Hardware: Peerless Storage

2001-09-01T05:46:00.000-07:00

Iomega's Peerless weds the best of CD-Rs and portable hard drives: gigabytes of removable storage that fit into a ready-to-go dock.

But Iomega has bigger plans: It wants to make Peerless the standard format for data dumping, especially video. The unit comes with MGI VideoWave, a simple DV editor, and the company is collaborating with manufacturers to integrate the drives into car stereos next year and, eventually, into DV recorders.

Read the article at wired.com

Josh Roseman Unit: Cherry

2001-07-27T09:45:00.000-07:00

When did you last revel in the glory of a trombone-led jazz band that plays rock & roll? Here's one that'll bring a smile to your face. Josh Roseman has the quirky charisma necessary to turn the often sedate trombone into a leading instrument, and his band's first album showcases his skill and his rather bent sense of humor. Full of covers (and a few originals), Cherry is a cheery journey through funk, soul, jazz, and rock. The band's off-tempo take on Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir" is worth a listen, as is their Morphine-like rendition of Nirvana's "Smell's Like Teen Spirit." But these tunes feel like tossed-off jokes meant to attract attention and they get tiresome quickly. The unit's version of Burt Bacharach's "Land of Make Believe," on the other hand, is poignant and sticky sweet in all the good ways. Roseman also throws in some Sun Ra, Marvin Gaye, the Beatles, and other tunes to cover all his influences. And while it's certainly fun to hear his vision of each of those, Roseman doesn't give himself enough credit for his own compositional skill. His three original works shine more than the covers. His slow, soulful melody on "Extra Virgin" is the most beautiful song on the album. In his own work, you hear elements of the artists he covers -- Sun Ra's experimentation, Bacharach's hooks, and Gaye's soul -- but in a unique way. He especially favors his Sun Ra side on the march-like "Trousertrout," which takes a couple of minutes to get to the hook, but it's fun when it arrives.

Review also available at allmusic.com

DJ Logic: The Anomaly

2001-05-22T09:43:00.000-07:00

On his second solo album, DJ Logic creates a true anomaly in the electronic jazz genre: a set that remains true to the improvisational spirit of jazz and makes you want to shake your ass. Unlike recent techno jazz albums by artists such as St. Germain, the songs on The Anomaly never drift into dull repetition -- each tune constantly surprises with unexpected turns. The Anomaly is a bit fresher and funkier than his equally excellent debut Presenting Project Logic, which tended toward the dense and industrial. Logic earned his pedigree working with latter-day jazz saints such as Vernon Reid and Medeski Martin and Wood, and both Reid and Medeski lend a hand to their disciple on this album. In particular, Medeski's funk organ gospel adds an extra kick to "French Quarter," a nasty jam replete with a Tower of Power-like horn refrain. He and his excellent band Project Logic dip into trip-hop with "Black Buddha," layering velvety sax and flute melodies and ambient accompaniment. "Soul Kissing" finds Logic delving into Eastern rhythms with a violin playing the main melody and tablas filling out the sound. He even pulls off a deft hip-hop tune on "The Project," thanks to Subconscious' heady rap. Logic experiments on several tracks to varying success, including a bizarre meld of industrial and aria on "Hip-Hopera," which sounds like an eerie ghost haunting a sheet metal factory. But no matter what concoctions he tries, Logic keeps it lively and intense. The Anomaly works well whether you're on the dancefloor or sitting on the living room floor.

Review also available at allmusic.com

Best CD/MP3 Jukebox

2001-05-01T05:40:00.000-07:00

Read the article at wired.com

How It Works: Hardware MP3 Players

2000-01-01T06:46:00.000-08:00

Your digital audio is now free to roam, away from your PC. Here's how hardware MP3 players work.

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How It Works: USB

1999-12-31T06:48:00.000-08:00

Good-bye parallel and serial ports, hello USB. Our latest tech primer explains the new bus in town.

Read the article at pcworld.com

How It Works: IEEE 1394

1999-12-20T06:51:00.000-08:00

Our latest tech primer explains how fast IEEE 1394 (aka FireWire) can go and how to get it.

Read the article at pcworld.com