Say It Ain't So, Sasha

What? Sasha Frere-Jones now works for Rupert Murdoch? For the past several months, Murdoch has apparently been planning a daily online paper for the iPad to add to his News Corp. assets, and has recruited Frere-Jones, the world's best music critic, to be the culture editor. The Times reports that Frere-Jones will remain at his day job, writing for the New Yorker, but it's doubtful that there's any more dissonant culture clash within New York media than the New Yorker and News Corp. Frere-Jones' writing is deft, nuanced, springy, fun and incisive. News Corp.'s attitude and reporting, best exemplified by Fox News and the Post, is superficial, bloated, histrionic and discardable. How this lasts is hard to see.

Anyway, here's to the good times: the video for "When I'm With You," by Best Coast, whose debut record is one of Frere-Jones' favorites of 2010: