You won’t see this poster for Lulu at any stops along the London Underground.   Why?  Because it looks too much like graffiti and they’re worried that it might encourage

From radio consultant Sean Ross’ latest newsletter:

As programmers begin to look at radio formats that transcend musical genres, it’s surprising that more stations haven’t been specifically geared to exercise. In various sessions at the RAIN Summit and NAB Radio Show in Chicago last week, streaming radio’s place in the gym came up on a number of occasions. (A few days earlier, Pandora had announced a suite of workout-targeted stations.) In terms of usage you might hear pitched by a traditional radio station, however, the workout room usually has to settle for being lumped in with “some other place.

The book Last Shop Standing:  Whatever Happened to Record Shops? is a great survey of the decline of the UK record store by Graham Jones.  It’s now being turned into

[This article appeared on August 27 in the Ottawa Citizen.  Expect more Steve Job stories leading up to the 10th anniversary of the introduction of the iPod next month.]

The story as recounted to me goes something like this. I have a screenwriter friend in Los Angeles who, back in 2001, was still trying to establish himself in the industry. One day, he got a call from his agent.

William Shatner may be 80 years old–and a damn good-looking 80 at that–but he has ZERO intention of slowing down.  Consider what he has planned for the next few months:

• A live concert tour where he’ll tell stories from his life.  And yes, that means LOTS of Star Trek.
• A book entitled Shatner Rules.
• A DVD called The Captains, which explores everyone who has ever manned the con in the Star Trek franchise.
• And an album entitled Seeking Major Tom which is all about answering the question of whatever happened to David Bowie’s doomed spaceman.

With the 20th anniversary of the release of Nevermind coming up on Saturday, there’s plenty of Nirvana interest going around.  This includes some deluxe and super-deluxe re-releases of the album.

Facebook has something planned for their f8 Conference on Thursday.  We know it has to do with integrating music deeper into the Facebook experience.  But how?  With whom?   From

The winner!Somalia may be a failed state, but one Mogadishu radio station sure knows how to attract the younger demos.

Radio Andulus, a station run by the al-Shabab militia (they’re allegedly buddies of al-Qaida) conducted a contest for children to see who could best recite passages from the Koran during the month of Ramadan.  The winners were named on Monday.

• First prize:  $700–and an AK-47.
• Second prize:  $500–and an AK-47.
• Third prize:  Two bombs (hand grenades, actually)

Jeff Martin and the Tea Party (not exactly as illustrated)When Jeff Martin, Stuart Chatwood and Jeff Burrows formed a band in Windsor, Ontario, back in 1990, their choice of the name “The Tea Party” had nothing to do with anti-tax shenanigans in Boston Harbour in December 1773.  No, this “tea party” was the nickname for the times William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac all got together to smoke hash back in the 50s and 60s.

How ironic then that the most conservative elements of the Republican Party–The Tea Party–may want to purchase the domain name www.teaparty.com from the rather liberal admirers of hash smoking Beat poets.

You can imagine the confusion of US Tea Partiers when confronted by the results when they type “Tea Party” into Google.  And you might also imagine the frustration of the recently-reformed Tea Party (the band).

“So much damage has been done to our name by the political movement that we’re considering selling,” says Chatwood.