Monitor picks
Music's paste makers
You can judge this magazine by its cover. Paste, America's finest rock-music magazine, pays as much attention to its design as it does to its coverage of music built to last. The young publication, renowned for its scrapbook aesthetic and complimentary compilation CDs, started out as a quarterly but, beginning with the August issue, Paste will now be issued monthly. Let's hope it sticks.
In an era of extreme home makeovers, HGTV's Design Star (Sundays at 9 p.m. EDT) is worth watching, if for no other reason than to see that stem-to-stern redos don't happen with the wave of a magic wand. Ten future Ty Penningtons vie for their own design show. Results don't always wow, but that makes this reality TV more real.
arias and graces The Mozart Album, a love letter to the composer by opera's superstars, is a showcase for Anna Netrebko (l.). The soprano's harmonies with Elina Garanca on "Ah perdona al primo affetto" will make hearts flutter.
The latest entrant into the online video wars is Gotuit.com, now in beta mode. Unlike Youtube.com, which features amateur shorts, Gotuit streams professional videos, including news from AP and Reuters and music videos from Nelly Furtado and even Spinal Tap. Our favorite: clips of each 2006 NFL draftee.
Take your ears to a different destination around the globe each week courtesy of a free download at WorldMusic.NationalGeographic.com. Maurice El Médioni, an Algerian exile whose infuses piano jazz with slinky Cuban rhythms, is this week's freebie artist on a website that is a vital guide to world music.
