What is the ultimate cost of free? Like many before them, Paste Magazine becomes another victim of two industries who are losing the ultimate battle for your hard-earned dollar.

Yeah, this editorial is about a sad, country song. But it is also about connecting to another world; remembering musical obsession; not relating to Vampire Weekend or Animal Collective; and the great Keith Whitley.

I have been struggling for the last several weeks to write worthwhile original content. Finally, I break through with a new editorial with thoughts on Ken Griffey, Jr., the imperfect, perfect game, journalists, the Atlanta music scene and this little Web site.

There has been a tremendous amount of discourse regarding the sub-genre of music that hopped onto the underground/blog music scene early Fall 2009. Dubbed “Chillwave” by one of the larger music blogs, it’s the new “it” music of the uber-hipster. I was asked last week by a local musician to explain what Chillwave was, exactly. [...]

There are moments in life that bind age, creed, color into one unforgettable experience. When the moment called, Jason Heyward delivered.

1993: The year that forms the hazy, golden memory that I will forever look back on fondly. Good and bad, the music of that summer is a huge part of the reason why.

Whether the forgotten ’90s? Now that we are a generation removed from the time-frame, it seems that most music-heads, journalists and fans seem to focus on Grunge, Brit-Pop or Indie/College Rock of the era. But why does no one remember (or play) the other great music from that time-frame?

I have no time to write this, but with several long-time music sites getting shut down by Google because of terms violations (focusing on supposed MP3 posting viloations with this comment) regardless of whether or not the site in question have approval to post MP3s reminds us all a couple of things:

With Mark McGwire’s admission of his use of steroids yesterday there seems to be an overwhelming admonishment of his behavior. I, by no means, am excusing his behavior. However, I believe that he, and the players like him, are all suffering from double-standard by both the media and baseball fans.

Earlier this year, I started a “Music of the 2000′s” series that highlighted albums that I enjoyed throughout the decade. That lasted about eight albums. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized “Best of” lists just aren’t for me.

Thanksgiving is only a couple of days away and I’m sure there will be a ton of “what I’m thankful for articles” populating newspapers and the Web in the next couple of days. If memory serves me, I’ve written a few of them myself over the years, so it’s a topic that – excuse the pun – is ripe for the picking.

This year, as we move toward a holiday that I, myself, have always favored, I’m not so sure there’s as much to be cheerful about.

I’ve been having an internal debate for some time now about how to approach commenting on the Atlanta mayoral election and specifically Kyle Keyser and his unlikely candidacy for the position. Talking about local politics on a site like this is akin to talking about religion on a first date, you just don’t do it unless your are ready to deal with the fall-out. Additionally, the vast majority of the readership of this site is outside of the state of Georgia, much less Atlanta. Would someone from New York or Los Angeles or London care about local Atlanta politics?