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I covered the best-sounding new digital recordings last Sunday; this time it's the choicest new vinyl.

'The White Stripes' Most tracks are stripped down to the basics, just Jack White on vocals and guitar, and Meg White's minimalist drum kit. An amazing debut record, not exactly an audiophile classic, but it wins points for emotional honesty. It feels right, and White's analog loving roots are on full display.

The Pastels, 'Slow Summits'A beautiful new record from an old band. These pretty, melodic, but definitely not pop tunes unfold one after another before your ears. The thing … Read more

Is an album a more substantial work of art than a single? Or is a well-crafted single all we need? There were always singles, but in the days before the Internet, fans were sometimes "forced" to buy albums to get the music they wanted, even when most of the album's tunes weren't great. The hugely entertaining "The Great Debate: Singles vs. Albums" held last Monday at the New Music Seminar in NYC covered the issue in depth.

Robert Christgau, one of the first generations of professional "rock critics," was there to defend … Read more

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The next cinematic installment of J.R.R. Tolkien's written masterpiece "The Hobbit" returns to U.S. theaters on December 13, but in the meantime, be sure to check out a new trailer for the film courtesy of Warner Bros.

As expected, Peter Jackson's "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug" picks up where "An Unexpected Journey" left off. It continues the tale of Bilbo Baggins' journey to take back the Lonely Mountain from the gold-hungry dragon Smaug in an attempt to reclaim the Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor. All of the actors who played the main characters -- Bilbo Baggins, Gandalf, and Thorin Oakenshield -- from the first film reprise their respective roles once again.… Read more

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LOS ANGELES -- This isn't a normal E3 for Nintendo. For the first time in recent memory, the company has decided to forgo a traditional press conference in lieu of a more intimate experience.

While Microsoft and Sony continue to exchange unpleasantries, Nintendo is using the opportunity to give the media a behind-closed-doors look at some of its upcoming Wii U titles, some of which are completely unannounced.

I got to sit down with these games and get some hands-on time to see what Nintendo has planned for the Wii U, a console that has undoubtedly stumbled out of … Read more

The Pirate Cinema chaotically visualizes the most popular video torrent files found on The Pirate Bay in a mesmerizing and sometimes visually overwhelming way.

Created by artist Nicolas Maigretto and programmed by Brendan Howell, the cinematic collage involves a custom-programmed box that intercepts real-time peer-to-peer file sharing among the top 100 torrent files (on The Pirate Bay) and projects flashes of the actively downloaded video content on one of three screens.… Read more

Comedian and self-appointed judge John Hodgman reveals the secrets to surviving the apocalypse and answers your questions about National Doughnut Day, the proper way to grow a mustache, and how to deal with Internet whiners.

If you like what you hear, subscribe to Netflix and check out John's stand-up special "Ragnarok" on June 20, push play, and walk away. John's also performing in Chicago on June 13 at the Just For Laughs comedy festival. Details on all his tours can be found here and on John's Twitter!… Read more

From comics without pictures to bioengineered veins, it was again a week during which we saw some very futuristic technologies come to life.

A design student in Germany created a graphic novel for the sight-impaired that tells a simple story through touch. "Life" is a simple tale told using only circles of varying textures to describe a single life cycle.

The first-ever bioengineered vein was recently implanted into the arm of a 62-year-old Virginia man with kidney disease. Cultivated from donated human cells on tubular framing to form a vessel-like shape, the replacement part performed better in preclinical … Read more