Culture and Society

America Online released a free, Internet-based e-mail service today – the first time the company has gone outside the “garden wall” of their fee-based subscription model for substantial services. Competing with free emails services like Google’s Gmail (2.3 gigabytes of storage), Yahoo (1 gigabyte for free), and Microsoft Corp.’s Hotmail …

As the jury returns today for its first full day of deliberations in the Michael Jackson trial, contrary to what his spokesperson Raymone Bain said on the matter, the King of Pop clearly IS “falling apart.” Jackson visited the emergency room of the small Santa Ynez Valley Cottage Hospital near …

Music Plus TV co-founder Marc Cubas is tired of Britney Spears. “I’m tired of listening to the same stuff,” he complains. He believes he has the cure. On June 15th, Cubas and co-founder Dennis Tzeng officially launch Music Plus TV, a Los Angeles-based 24-hour live streaming web television station that …

The Board of Directors of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the Internet’s main oversight body, yesterday approved a new domain for “adult-entertainment” sites — .xxx — which had been submitted for consideration by ICM Registry along with ten other potential new Internet address suffixes, including .jobs …

I am happy and honored to be appearing live and via podcast on the Subject 2 Discussion show, on LVRocks.com out of Las Vegas, tonight at 6:15 pm PT/9:15 pm ET with Shaun Daily, former Clinton/Gore 96 National Steering Committee member and interview dude extraordinaire. Shaun’s blog for the show …

Just kidding: Bo will be on tour with American Idol all summer regardless of what happens tonight. Nonetheless, the most narowly defined reality show yet is coming to CBS beginning July 11, Rock Star: INXS, which will be hosted by former Jane’s Addiction and Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist and …

This week is the grand finale for American Idol – will it be Bo or Carrie, or should I say “Carrie or Bo”? We are subtly and not so subtly influenced by any number of factors in our preferences and since American Idol is decided by viewer voting, such influences …

Paris Hilton wriggles in a one-piece black Shay Todd swimsuit with a Carl’s Jr. Spicy BBQ Six Dollar Burger in her hot little hand while washing a Bentley in a shot from a new 30-second TV spot debuting May 19. The woman has integrated herself into American popular culture with …

Berkleemusic adds five new college-credit guitar courses and programs to their burgeoning online curriculum – no cowbell, yet. Berkleemusic.com, the online extension school of Berklee College of Music, has added five new online guitar courses and five new college-credit guitar certificate programs to their online curriculum. Courses include Guitar Scales …

The Arab world’s equivalent of American Idol, Star Academy, concluded in April with the crowning of Saudi Arabian singer Hisham Abdul-Rahman as “Star” on the Lebanese LBC network. I love the awkward enthusiasm of the announcement of Hisham’s victory on the English version of the show’s website: “Congratulations and celebrations …