http://www.rockcritics.com/Favourite_Scribings_2003.html I haven't worked all the way through this huge list but I can provide some links for articles that Jason mentions: "Can hip-hop be saved?" (Boston Globe) is at http://www.azcentral.com/ent/music/articles/0425hiphop.html "Beat at their own game" (LA Times, about the "demise" of session drummers) can be found at http://makeashorterlink.com/?L59912DD6 (groups.yahoo.com/group/asianamericanartistry/message/2036) or http://timhwang.com/session-player.htm Despite some efforts I couldn't locate the LA Times' "Lend Them Your Ear--The Demise of the Record Store Clerk" (Another quite apocalyptic title - I hope our resident record store people aren't worried by it.) The ArtsJournal.com http://www.artsjournal.com/yesterdays/20030826-7442.shtml has this quotation: "Like their counterparts at book and video stores, record clerks shape our experience of culture as decidedly as any critic, curator or culture-industry executive. They're street-level tastemakers, part of a breed that's entered pop mythology. But despite these glamorous associations, serious clerks have become an endangered species. The Internet, with outfits like book and CD merchant Amazon and DVD service Netflix, is put- ting stores, which offer the joy of browsing, serendipity and human contact, out of business." Regards Franz Fuchs