FADER in conjunction with Southern Comfort (a brand steeped in music) has produced a new limited edition 7-inch.

“Wild Man” from Atlanta’s The Black Lips is on side A. P-town’s YACHT offers “No Favors Policy” on the B-side. Philly artist Andrew Jeffrey Wright designed the folk art-inspired cover.

Fader has a handful to give away—email contests@thefader.com, put “seven” in the subject line somewhere, and they’ll select winners at random.

[via I Am Fuel, You Are Friends]

I love seeing stories (like this one in The New York Times) that detail how business can be a central driver for social change.

La Cocina is a shared-use space created two years ago by the California Women’s Foundation to provide a platform for women entrepreneurs short on liquid assets. Offering a low hourly rate for access to 2,200 square feet of restaurant-quality kitchen space, the nonprofit La Cocina also provides training from high-profile mentors and technical assistance on creating business plans and building marketing programs.

“The really cool thing about a business incubator is that when you get entrepreneurial people in one place, there’s a synergistic effect,” said Tracy Kitts, vice president and chief operating officer of the National Business Incubation Association. “Not only do they learn from staff, they learn tons from each other, and this really contributes greatly to their success.”

The association estimates there are 1,200 incubation programs in the United States. Only 19 of them are kitchen incubators. One of La Cocina’s more successful projects to date—Peas of Mind, a line of frozen organic toddler food—is now in 80 stores, including 20 Whole Foods Market stores.

“They are helping people produce products that are high quality and of great integrity,” said Justin Jackson, executive coordinator for purchasing at Whole Foods in Northern California. “If it wasn’t well thought through and executed properly, our interest wouldn’t be what it is.”

[via Egglog]

The USA trails other industrialized nations in high-speed Internet access and may never catch up unless quick action is taken by public-policymakers.

The median U.S. download speed now is 1.97 megabits per second — a fraction of the 61 megabits per second enjoyed by consumers in Japan. Other speedy countries include South Korea (median 45 megabits), France (17 megabits) and Canada (7 megabits).

Broadband speed is a function of network capacity: The more capacity you have, the more speed you can deliver. Speed, in turn, allows more and better Internet applications, such as photo sharing and video streaming. Superfast speeds are imperative for critical applications such as telemedicine.

The Federal Communications Commission, which has broad sway over the emerging broadband market, defines “high speed” as 200 kilobits per second. The benchmark was adopted more than a dozen years ago when still-slower dial-up was the rule. Communications Workers of America President Larry Cohen says 200 kilobits is not even recognized as broadband in most countries today. “There is nothing speedy about it.”

[via USA Today]

photo by Aaron Arthur

I am not a “trekie.” I grew up on “Space 1999” and “Thundercats,” however I can draw the parallel to a bunch of manic, lunatic fringe designers. We are “trekies” in our way—spooky, serious and devoted to the craft of making stuff pretty. Think about 3,500 geeked-out designers in Atlanta for 3 days…

This is the “Creativity Business & Technology Conference for Graphic Designers,” and as I found, a great forum to recharge my creative batteries. HOW was able to provide design seminars, inspiration and creative advice with some of the industry leaders like: Chip Kidd, Gary Baseman, Deborah Sussman, Kit Hinrichs, Marc English and many more. These creative professionals lead the charge in how we see things, and it was a pleasure the see their creative fervor first hand. (more…)

For environmentally conscious consumers—or for those curious about driving a hybrid—there’s good news. Hertz and Avis are planning to offer hybrid vehicles as part of their rental fleets.

Avis will have 1,000 Toyota Prius hybrids available for rentals as early as this week. Their plan is to initially offer hybrids in its California, Portland, Seattle and Washington, D.C. locations and possibly expand to more spots in the future.

Hertz is planning to have 3,400 Prius hybrids available by next year at 50 U.S. airport locations. According to Hertz, replacing 1,000 of its regular cars with hybrids will decrease carbon dioxide emissions by as much as 3,000 tons a year.

According to Avis spokesman John Barrows quoted by the Associated Press:

Barrows said Avis also believes that the Prius rentals will not only appeal to travelers but those interested in buying a hybrid.

“Obviously we have customers who want them,” he said. “And there are other people out there who are interested in purchasing a hybrid but really want to check one out before buying one.”

Starting next week, MySpace users will be able to watch mini-episodes of 15 old TV shows, including “Charlie’s Angels,” “Who’s The Boss” and “Fantasy Island.” Sony Pictures Television is referring to the shows as its “Minisode Network.” They have been edited down from 30 to 60 minute TV shows to four to six minute programs that are more ideal for web viewing.

According to the New York Times:

The minisodes are not intended as pastiches or excerpts; they are edited carefully so the plots can be followed from beginning to end. (It helps that many of the series are formulaic sitcoms or police dramas.)

The concept is comparable to the Condensed Books once sold by Reader’s Digest, which promised to provide readers with the essence of the original, longer versions.

“The new forms of media make lots of things possible,” said Amy Carney, president for advertiser sales at Sony Pictures Television in New York, part of the Sony Corporation of America division of the Sony Corporation of Japan.

The sole sponsor of the minisodes is Honda. The automaker will be airing a shortened commercial prior to each shortened show. Appropriately enough, the ads will be for its minicar, the Honda Fit.

Most of us are patriotic. But it is safe to say that we don’t all have a 50-foot aluminum pole with an American flag waving boldly in our front yard. However, we do like to say we buy American. BigMacs and Ballpark Franks. So why does the Chevy Aveo come with duck sauce instead of a side of ketchup?

According to recent data compiled by USA TODAY, only 4% of the Aveo is actually built stateside. This mean that the remaining 96% of the car is made in South Korea. This would explain why I have never seen the Aveo make an appearance in one of those American Revolution spots from Chevrolet, or even a newly released commissary Tupac video. Some of my 40 just spilt on the floor.

So what does this mean? Does the Aveo prefer the warm waters of the Korea Strait to that of Lake Michigan? Is there something bigger going on here? Is there a call of duty or higher power the Aveo answers too?

I like to imagine that the Aveo is protecting us from the dangerous communist regime that has set up shop in the North. It makes me sleep a little easier knowing that Kim Jong-Il will have to out-gun the little Aveo before he can ever dream of starting a turf war in the South.

We’re not talking zero to sixty times, torque or flux capacitors. We are talking about a simple, back to basics philosophy. You don’t buy an Aveo for cheap thrills. Golly gee you buy an Aveo for democracy! It’s not just an American car, it is an American car made in a distant country for the rest of the democratic world.

Or maybe it is just the industry jonesing for a cheap meal and side sauce that will leave you famished later.

[Source: USA Today]

When it comes to restaurant reviews who you gonna trust? The local newspaper? CitySearch? Yahoo Local? If you’re into social networks and tend to put your faith in word-of-mouth, the answer is none of the above. You’re going to visit Yelp to see what other citizen reviewers like yourself have to say.

According to USA Today:

Yelpers have written more than 1 million reviews since the site launched in 2004, with more than 500,000 posted in the past four months. “If you look at the reviews on Yahoo, Google or CitySearch, they get three or four posted per business, but Yelp gets like 20 to 50,” says Greg Sterling, an analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence.

Yelp now has specific sites for nine major cities, including Los Angeles, New York, Austin and Seattle. It also has Yellow Pages information for local businesses nationally.

The leading review categories are restaurants (36%), retail stores (26%), beauty and fitness (8%), arts and entertainment (8%), home and local services (5%) and health and medical (4%).

According to USA Today, just 17% of American leisure travelers said they had engaged in food- and wine-related pursuits in the past three years. But 60% expressed an interest in culinary travel and North Carolina ranked fifth in the top 15 U.S. food-related destinations. The reason is barbecue.

From the wooded byways of North Carolina’s fertile tobacco country to the strip malls of its burgeoning suburbs, barbecue isn’t just something you heap on a soft white bun and serve with a side of slaw.

In these parts, slow-roasted pork smells of heritage, history and home. It ignites passions and sparks rivalries. And with the creation this year of a statewide barbecue trail, it’s attracting tourists, too.

Tourists and locals alike can now share in the state’s culinary claim to fame by following The North Carolina Barbecue Historic Trail. The trail is the brainchild of Jim Early, an attorney by profession and barbecue nut by avocation. The author of The Best Tar Heel Barbecue: Manteo to Murphy crisscrossed 22,000 miles of North Carolina blacktop researching his book.

Of course, if you don’t have the time nor inclination for that kind of thoroughness, you can simply exit I-85 in Lexington and pull into any number of fine establishments. In my opinion, none are finer than Lexington Barbecue, known locally as “Honeymonks.”

With recorded-music sales plummeting, merchandise is one of the most important new revenue streams to everyone in the music food chain — including record labels and music publishers. Add to this music consumers’ well established desire for band merch and the stage is set for creative new attempts at weaving fashion with rock.

Today’s Wall Street Journal (paid sub. req.) takes a closer look:

Lyric Jeans subtly weaves the lyrics to famous songs into the designs of high-price shirts, pants, belt buckles, scarves and other apparel. The company is making a big move to take the concept upmarket. The fall 2007 collection, its first, is being offered at Saks Fifth Avenue and about 50 high-end boutiques around the country, including Lisa Kline in Los Angeles.

“The Revolution Collection,” as the line is known, comprises clothes featuring the words to 23 hits from the late ’60s and early ’70s, including six by the Beatles, David Bowie’s “Rebel Rebel” and Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Goin’ On?”

Each garment carries a copyright credit and the motto “Wear it like you wrote it.” The hang tags are designed to look like concert tickets and backstage passes. Retail prices for T-shirts range from $84 to $120; jeans range from $185 to $450. Chunky bronze belt buckles are priced at $300 and up.

Lyric founder and President Hanna Rochelle Schmieder, herself a singer-songwriter, believes her products stand out because her designs convey something of a given song’s spirit. “Anybody could put Mick Jagger’s face on a T-shirt, and it would sell,” she says. “Anybody could throw lyrics on a shirt. But the key is to capture the song’s essence.”