Monday morning.

What kind of week will this be?

While these are challenging times for just everybody in the Music/Tech axis, chances are you have your good weeks and your bad weeks. Life has its ups and downs. There are lots of ins, lots of outs, and a lot of what-have-yous. To a large degree your value as an entrepreneur, executive or friend probably lies in large part in how well you negotiate these vagaries.

For our friends at Golden Voice and AEG, life should be good this week.  Ten days ago they unleashed Coachella 2011, starring Arcade Fire, Kanye West, & The Strokes — and reviews of both the performances and the concert experience were generally good. Even Jeff ‘MF’ Goldblum knocked ‘em out at Indio. This past weekend, Golden Voice/AEG followed Coachella up with The Big Four, featuring Metallica, Slayer, Megadeath, and Anthrax and more devil-horn-hand-salutes than the last few Ozzfest tours ever managed. Again, Goldenvoice scored good reviews. Yes indeed, it should be a good week over at Goldenvoice.

For Sony, on the other hand, times are tough. This morning marks day number six  that the Playstation and Qriocity Unlimited Music Service are offline. If you have ever witnessed the 5 Steps of  Millennial Mourning experience when deprived connectivity (shock, disbelief, anger, depression, removal of bookmark) you know how tough this must be.

How do you say ov vey in Japanese?

For the rest of us, last week was likely business as usual. Monday was hardly manic, so I was allotted some time to check in with the latest Nielsen Wire findings on online video. What a battlefield!

Tuesday I stumbled upon some Swiss footage of a Justin Bieber prankster, and then took a minute to write a piece on the new “Google Should Buy The Music Business” meme. Ridiculous you say? On second thought,  maybe I said that.

Wednesday was a day of pithy soundbites…as David Bowie, Lady Gaga, Jack White and Snoop Dogg all had their moment in the spotlight. How could you possibly top all these great one and two liners…why you would have to bring back VH1′s Twitteresque Pop-Up Video show. OK then, done.

Thursday featured a longer piece, as we interviewed the deserving respected terrestrial radio consultant Fred Jacobs. Fred was articulate and forthcoming as always, and pulled no punches in discussing old media’s challenges as their world transforms.

Friday, Saturday and Sunday were filled with your responses on our Rock Considers Itself countdown, a tutorial on PowerPoint, and a Ron Burgundy styled report on Apple’s massive new data center outside of Charlotte.

As I warned, a lot of vagaries.  A lot of ins, a lot of outs, a lot of what have yous. Yup, new s**t has come to light.  But you can handle it, can’t you, dear Digital Music Insider.

“How come you never write about music…about the stuff you like? You’re one of the few guys who really really still loves music” — Jonathan Daniel, manager extraordinaire to me, March 1st 2011.

Jonathan’s question stopped me dead in my tracks. What was it about me, or my perception of the blogosphere, that pushed me away from writing about music.

“Writing about music is like dancing about architecture — it’s a really stupid thing to want to do”. — Elivis Costello by way of Martin Mull.

“Music journalism –that’s people who can’t write, interviewing people who can’t talk, for people who can’t read”. — Frank Zappa

“Most critics like Elvis Costello better than Van Halen, because most critics look like Elvis Costello, not like me”. — David Lee Roth.

Quotes like these could leave a guy paralyzed about writing about music. Check that, quotes like these should leave a guy paralyzed about writing about music.

Still, it was an unusually musical week for me, as I logged a tremendous amount of road time going from meeting to meeting.

Driving throughout a rainy Southern California this week, my soundtrack consisted of four great newish albums — Blessed from Lucinda Williams, The Dancing Monk from Eric Reed, The Greatest Story Never Told from Saigon, and Hard Times and Nursey Rhymes from Social Distortion.  Ringing guitars, hard bop, and soulful rap.  The known knowns.

There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don’t know we don’t know. — Donald Rumsfeld.

By the way, I feel about Donald Rumsfeld pretty much the same way I feel about Loverboy, but for different reasons. Loverboy: tremendous fashion faux pas. Rumsfeld: macho war mongering.

Loverboy and Rumsfeld — I know a great song like “Turn Me Loose” or a trenchant quote, when I hear it.

So that’s it dear reader — four new release recommendations, all admittedly squarely inside my boundaries of  known knowns. For the foreseeable future, I will leave music and political criticism to others.

Now, writing about the business of music, or digital disruption, that I can tackle. Even after 12 years in the space, I’m still just ignorant enough to plow on ahead.

And plow on ahead, we did, starting Monday, with some thoughts on Barry Michels, one of Hollywood’s most notable therapists. Barry had us contemplating whether or not petulance, rage and arrogance were positive qualities for entertainment business titans, and thinking hard about lessons we had learned from Dr. Seuss. Later that day, I weighed in on why a couple of Germans might spend their time writing code to give the major labels the finger, Lemmy vs. God, and just how global our businesses have all become. As Prince once wrote, and Suzanna Hoffs sang — it (was) just another manic Monday.

Tuesday and Wednesday I hit the road. I was busy, but with all the great advancements designed by Mr. Jobs and purchased from Mr Bezos, I was easily able to cover their dirty little war, as well as comment on Pinch Sulzberger’s ill-advised quote about folks who might dare to access the NY Times for free. All that and the start of baseball season too.

Thursday, now that was my fun day, as Bill Ngyuen, our colorful Lala friend reemerged with 41 million dollars of funding for his new location-obsessed company. I also was able to dive into the scientific history of the MP3 file, and spend a few minutes reminiscing about Suzanne Vega and Tom’s Diner up on 112th street near Columbia University.

We finished the week linked in to Amanda Palmer, Kurt Cobain and Jack Donaghy.  All three seemed to be wondering whether some kinds of popularity are all they are cracked up to be. I wonder if this is some kind of strange coincidence, or if our most tech savvy artist, a brilliant rock legend, and a wonderfully arrogant and petulant corporate titan, were simply coming together just in the nick of time.

Perhaps in our Rebecca Black meets Charlie Sheen corner of the digital universe, we are learning that popularity is indeed a mixed bag. So I’ll leave the music criticism, headband wearing and world domination to the real experts. At least for this week.

In the wake of the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear crisis in Japan, it’s unwise to call Music Industry events catalysmic. So, I won’t. Instead, let’s simply start where our week started, contemplating ex-Napster founder Sean Parker and his possible purchase of WMG, and ruminating on the word ironic.

As if this Sean Parker news weren’t disruptive enough, on Monday I also encountered Rebecca Black for the first time. In a world where this video and song gets more YouTube plays than any rock band can muster — yup — consider yourself disrupted. Or if you insist on being a true music loyalist, try Elvis Costello’s approach: I used to be disgusted, now I try to be amused.

Catalysmic. Ironic. Disgusted. Disrupted. A single word can say so much.

Now not all technology disrupts — take the Zune music player for instance. On Tuesday word leaked from Microsoft that Zune player was to be no more. The Zune, as we now all know, turned out to be about as sought after as Jon Bon Jovi will be for any future tech product launch, since  Jon claimed that : ” Steve Jobs was personally responsible for destroying the music business.”

Bon Jovi’s mutton-headed remark got us thinking about iTunes on Tuesday, and we took a hard look at iTunes product choices and marketing strategies. Turns out that the fine folks in Cupertino, seem like big fans of HBO’s The Wire, where Stringer Bell advised “everybody makes money sharing the real estate”. It occurs to me, with their mutual love of sharing, perhaps Sean Parker should look Stringer up, once the WMG dust settles.

Wednesday saw Jason Bateman shed some tears over Justin Bieber, ongoing SXSW action, and President Obama weighing in on illegal streaming. Who knew SXSW, making streaming a full-fledged felony, and celebrity crying, would mark the quietest day of the week?

Thursday the action picked back up with Apple unleashing a series of new, Android-wary iPhone ads, author Stephen Baker submitting himself to one of my interviews, and the New York Times laying out their complex pay-wall strategy. Initial reaction to the Times plan made Bon Jovi look like he was having a pretty good week, digitally speaking.

Friday saw the week end where we started, watching the near inconceivable, actually happen. Must be total disruption — how else can you explain label chairmen like Jimmy Iovine and LA Reid spending more time on Reality TV than in recording studios and boardrooms?

Since everyone else seemed plugged in to image over music, I headed there as well, by checking-in with YouTube clips from Foursquare, Scott Baio and Bob Dylan. Tech upstarts, an 80′s hearthrob, and the voice of a generation.  Only here, and only for you, dear Digital Music Insider. Only for you.

My week started with a cute little Public Radio plege drive clip, and I felt satisfied that we were off to a good start — I mean, who else would dig deep for fun video tidbits regarding Public Radio?

Oops.

Turns out James Okeefe, right wing sting specialist, that’s who. And with Ron Schiller, ex-President of the NPR Foundation, providing the sound bites, the NPR disaster was on. By week’s end, Mr. Schiller as well as NPR’s CEO Vivian Schiller (no relation) had resigned.

File under “#npr not winning“, I suppose.

Speaking of Twitter and “#winning” and “#not winning,” I uncovered a handy App to eradicate Charlie Sheen from your internet feeds. Now Charlie Don’t Surf, period.

I also took a look at the curious and winning phenomenon of Lupe Fiasco’s “bite-the-hand-that-feeds” album release strategy. Lupe proved that you don’t need to be a “bitchin rock-star from mars” to engage in hot rhetoric and lone crusading.  Apparently, a nice thoughtful hiphop MC can spit negative and get rewarded.

On Tuesday, we checked the results of Lupe’s tirade at retail– and yup, his album was #1 and performing strongly at the King Kong of Digital Retailers, those Cupertino Commandos at iTunes.

On Wednesday, we gave an ear to notorious Music Industry needler Michael Robertson, Clear Channel’s legendary mogul Bob Pittman, and my favorite guitarist, Nigel Tufnel. All these gentelemen, along with Messrs Schiller and Fiasco, proved that controversy sells. Which, of course, reminded us of Prince, who famously sang that he “couldn’t believe the things that people say,” long before talking about Chemtrails and  becoming one of those people himself. Sing it with me. Con-Tro-Versy.

Later on Wednesday, I tried to seek refuge in music, but after 10 minutes of wrestling with my iTunes library, I abandoned ship. I’ve come to loathe my iTunes library, like Prince loathes an unauthorized YouTube clip, or a major label recording contract. Determined to have fun despite the iTunes debacle, I explored some vintage Tom Waits PR strategy, did some toy shopping with Mark Zuckerberg, and offered you, dear reader, some timely SXSW tips. A man needs his diversions.

Thursday was unusally productive, with think pieces on Brand Development and the Fortune 500, as well as an expose revealing that Microsoft just might not like Apple. And you thought after Charlie Sheen, TMZ, Twitter, & NPR that journalism was dead?. I also found a moment to catch up with my old Yahoo nemesis Jay Frank, who now runs Music Strategy for CMT, when he is not busy killing Rock and Roll in his spare time.

Mercifully, Friday came, and I celebrated with some vintage MTV Spring Break footage and stock tips from Kid Rock. Then we offered a light little piece on Forrester Research’s Mark Mulligan and Dr. Jack Kevorkian. With Mr. Mulligan’s dire Music Biz prognosis ringing in my ears, I decided to pull the plug,  and call it a week. And looking back, what a week it was.

For those of you in Austin at SXSW, here’s a handy video to make sure you convention at your very best:

It’s cold and rainy in L.A., where complaining about the weather  is akin to moaning about being in the last row of  first class.

Speaking of colossal kvetching, how does a full-page anti-Grammy diatribe in the NY Times strike you? Well, it certainly struck marketing maven Steve Stoute like a good idea last Sunday. Stoute put forth any number of, um, interesting ideas, like accusing NARAS & Ken Ehrlich of rigging a best-album Arcade Fire conspiracy, proclaiming Eminem “the Bob Dylan of his generation” & urging artists to stop accepting their Grammy invitations. I weighed in on the Dylan front and pointed out that not even Bob Dylan wanted to be the Bob Dylan of his generation. And while we’re at it, let’s examine Arcade Fire’s dubious corporate connections along with those sell-out bands Crass, The Minutemen and of course, Fugazi.

As we rolled into Monday & Tuesday, the Apple App 30% tariff around subscription retook the headlines — with Rdio, Last.FM, Mog and a host of anonymous publishing executives saying not nice things about Mr. Jobs. Watching the barrage of punches thrown in Apple’s direction reminded me of Ali vs. Foreman, or nearly anyone vs. Rahm Emanuel. “Steve Jobs Bomaye!!, anyone?“.

All this Apple conjecture plus continued drama at AOL, Engadget, MySpace, & TopSpin made me feel stuck in a never-ending technology loop.

On Wednesday, bitten by a bug of temporary optimism, I took a look at the artist-development success story that is Fitz & The Tantrums, and posted a heartwarming shot of Thom Yorke baring his teeth in our direction.

Thursday was Dishing With The Digearti day, as Linchpin Digital founder Syd Schwartz dropped some science on piracy, label-life, album-death, and dastardly dictators. We also found a minute to watch Media Czar David Eun dance away from the AOL house, and took a quick glance at an even bigger property — the massive data-storage facility that Apple just bought.

Apple’s data plans led us mercifully to Friday, where the only thing we had energy to tackle was a think piece on Cloud Music, President Obama and the complete future of the Music Business. Ya know, the small stuff.

Hopefully, everyone will have a restful weekend, maybe get some good reading done, and then hit the ground complaining on Monday morning. After all, without the complaining, ya’ll wouldn’t be Digital Music Insiders — would you.

I’m recapping the week for you from nippy Minneapolis, where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking and the public radio is certainly well above average. In fact, Jim Mcguinn’s station, The Current, is so good, you might actually decouple the words “radio” & “disappointing” for the first time in years.

The week started on Sunday with a YouTube downloading party and then a surprisingly sprightly Grammys. Sprightly and unpredictable, as we saw Arcade Fire & Esperanza Spaulding become big winners, and svelte boys Justin Bieber & Eminem become the biggest losers. The whole week, in fact, had a sort of parallel universe tinge to it — Steve Jobs used the word “delighted”, Jon Irwin said “Baby Noo!“ and Pandora filed their IPO and were coronated kings of radio, instead of bankruptcy candidates. You want more evidence of the whole world going 180 degrees? — Radiohead announced, what the heck, this time you have to pay us.  Vivie Le Difference indeed!

On Tuesday night we caught up with Eric Garland, just as his outfit — Big Champagne — was named one of the worlds most innovative companies. Eric helped orient us to the new world order, talked some Bieber, and sent us off exploring just how far the music industry might come back.

By Thursday, while I was circling over Minneapolis, President Obama was in Silicon Valley having dinner with Mark Zukerberg, Steve Jobs and Eric Schmidt. I’m pretty sure my invite must have got caught up in spam.

As I stewed over missing the President, we closed things out on Friday with some analysis of Pandora and a quick contemplation of new business models from respected players like Ian Rogers, Aimee Mann, and Sarah McLachlan.

OK, then..I’m off to the St Paul Grill now, where the music is more Kenny G then I’d like, but the steaks are sizzling like a good “Is Zynga buying Myspace?” rumor.