DAILY NEWS PICKS

Happy 30th Birthday to Sony Walkman! [The Tripwire]

Obama Comments on Death of King of Pop [NME]

New Drake Video is Kanye West’s Directorial Debut [Rolling Stone]

Lineup Announced for Brooklyn Electronic Music Festival [The Tripwire]

Raekwon’s Cuban Linx II Release Date Pushed Back Again [Pitchfork]

How About Joe Perry II? Joe Perry Hosting Twitter Contest for New Album Title [Billboard]

Rehearsal Footage Shows Michael Still Had It Till The End [Rolling Stone]

Lower East Side Venue Pianos Being Sued by BMI [Brooklyn Vegan]

This Summer’s “Pool” Parties Announced! [FREEWilliamsburg]

compiled by Erin Sheehy

Sen. Obama still has two months until his presidential inauguration, and yet he has already become the America’s prominent figurehead, which is partly due to President Bush’s lame duck status. Still, who would want to stand in the public limelight with a year-long approval rating hovering around 30 percent? President Bush is probably yearning for Jan. 20 to hand Sen. Obama the reigns.

The Obama administration will have unprecedented influence over the direction of the Internet and technology within the coming years. For the first time ever, the president elect will establish a cabinet-level technology guru, called the Chief Technology Officer. Current contenders include Google executive Sonal Shah, Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos, and Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer. Current Google CEO Eric Schmidt already turned down the offer.

According to Obama’s technology plan, the CTO will “ensure that our government and all its agencies have the right infrastructure policies and services for the 21st Century.” In particular, the CTO will work with the chief technology and chief information officers of all federal branches, keeping all of the federal government’s technology aligned and up-to-date. Additionally, the CTO will focus on government transparency – such as using federal blogs or wikis – on the Internet and aiding in economic policy decisions.
More on Obama Administration Has Power to Shape Technology and Copyright Landscape

After an emotionally charged and historic week in America, talk of the election has almost become tiresome, but its magnitude of importance has made it impossible to overlook. The effect it has had on us all makes most other recent news seem pale as its bedfellow. Barack Obama has managed to inspire the country and galvanize many belonging to once politically apathetic generations to impose a much-needed change with a record-breaking voter turnout, seeing the most participants in at least the last 40 years. It is no surprise that as every individual citizen became a newly appointed activist, this election was probably the most rock n’roll political experience we’ve seen since Live Aid, and more hip-hop than Scarface. With public endorsements from the likes of Jay-Z, Mary J. Blige, Eminem, Wayne Coyne, Pete Wentz, Bob Dylan and Scott Weiland among a long list of others, the musicians whom emerged in support for the hopeful candidate reads off like the invite list to the MTV Music Awards.
More on Pop Politics: How Music Influenced The Election 2008 and Vice Versa

On Monday, Joanna Newsom will have something in common with The Beastie Boys, The National, The Breeders, Grizzly Bear, Zach Condon, Vampire Weekend, David Crosby, Graham Nash, Tenacious D, Sheryl Crow, Jack Johnson, Ben Harper, The Black Keys, Devo, Santogold, Mae Shi, Bad Dudes, Bastidas, the Widow Babies, DJ Z-Trip, Nico Muhly and undoubtedly many others, as she adds to the roster of rock stars performing in support of Barack Obama. Newsom will perform on October 20 at the University of Nevada in an effort to get the state’s residents to participate in Nevada’s early voting program, which begins the day of the performance.