This New Yorker riff is absolute genius:

So who was the much-rumored mystery "special guest" supposedly waiting backstage at last Saturday's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame concert in Cary? And whoever it was, why didn't he (or she, or they) perform?

Good questions, and I don't have definitive answers. But here's the next best thing.

ADDENDA: A correction, and Mr. French responds.

For real? Apparently so. Click through for more.

"Once in a Lifetime" long ago entered the category of Song I Used To Love Before It Got Beaten To A Wallpaper Pulp. But while I was watching television tonight, I discovered that there's a great new context to hear it in: This one.

Question: Could there possibly be a better thing to encounter on the radio while driving to work than Miles Davis' "So What"?

Answer: Of course not.

Mary J. Blige rolled into town Sunday night, with a show that felt like that all-men-are-scum conversation from Spike Lee's "Jungle Fever" -- a set that was a marked emotional contrast from the smooth come-hither vibe of opening act Robin Thicke. For more, see the review. And there's also a very nice photo gallery, shot by N&O photographer Takaaki Iwabu.

Today is "Peace Sunday," the International Day of Peace. So at the very open-minded Methodist church my family attends, this morning's late service began with a performance of John Lennon's 1971 peace anthem "Imagine" -- a song I dig, but one that's still mighty odd to hear while seated in a church pew. For some ruminations on that, see this remembrance of Lennon and "Imagine," originally published on the 25-year anniversary of his death.

This is the final weekend of baseball games in The House That Ruth Built, New York City's 85-year-old Yankee Stadium, which will make way for a fancy new model next season. But at least one person will miss the old model, E Street Band guitarist Nils Lofgren, who has teamed up with his wife Amy to compose an ode to Yankee Stadium -- where "everyone is beautiful." Check it out here.  

(Thanks, Doug.)

Officially, Texas singer/pianist Marcia Ball is non-partisan -- she played both the Democratic and Republican conventions, after all. But ask which convention was a better party, and it's no contest.

"The Democrats, hands down," she said in a recent interview. "The Democrats really knew how to party, and there was quite a guest list at the thing we played: James Carville, Kathleen Sebelius, Harry Shearer. It was cool and fun and the music was amazing. I could hardly believe I was there. It was a little bit of heaven. By the Republican convention, it was less of a party. Plus Hurricane Gustav was bearing down, and some of the Louisiana people had to go back. It didn't seem to be as much of an event to the Republicans, totally under the radar. I don't know if we made an impression in Minneapolis at all."

But Ball will probably make an impression tonight in Durham, at the Bull Durham Blues Festival. Check here for more on that and a variety of weighty topics, including barbecue.

Comedian Jerry Seinfeld's Nov. 14 Raleigh show went on sale this morning and sold out almost instantly. So a second show has been added, for 9:30 p.m. on the same date. It's on sale now. Check here for details, or head for the Progress Energy Center box office.