Simon Reynolds on Auto-Tune (Pitchfork). Long, thorough "explainer" piece on the effect, how it's used, and its history in commercial pop. For purposes of his discussion, Reynolds has temporarily ignored Sturgeon's Law that "90 percent of everything is crap."
UK sf/slipstream author Christopher Priest on why his new 9/11 novel An American Story has no American publisher. The Gollancz ebook is currently available at Barnes and Noble so it's not as if the book can't be read in the US, it's just that no US company would do a print run, book tour, etc. The silence on the subject of our national myth (what happened and how it happened) is actually the theme of the book. It's well worth a read.
