Two things that really excited me...

The first was the discovery of hours of new Beatles tapes in a flea-market suitcase. Unfortunately, as I read recently on rec.beatles.moderated, handing them over to Apple was probably the worst thing the guy could've done, from a fan's perspective. We'll probably never hear them fully. And if the Anthology is any measure, it will take ten years for something to be released (and that will be songs cobbled together from seperate tracks and mixes--thus creating songs that are not only worse than the released version, but also historically worthless. But more Beatles in the world is a good thing, regardless! The second was my discovery that writer Stanley Crouch recently slapped critic Dale Peck in a tiny French restaurant on my old NYC street, West 11th. The restaurant, Tartine, is so small, I'm surprised that Stanley didn't hit four other people in the act! I never met Stanley but used to hear him practicing his jazz drumming all the time. Nice street. I miss the West Village intensely. I have no feelings about Dale Peck.