As you Gawker.com readers know, the big news around Wenner Media / RS is that Jann & his partner, Matt, will be fathers. It’s kind of sad that I get most of the good Wenner gossip from Gawker…

Still, I did hear an interesting item while transcribing the other day – someone brought up a question about a cover photo featuring Steve Jones & Johnny Rotten that may or may not have been axed after the Sex Pistols told the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame (which RS is involved with) to piss off. It was apparently supposed to be the cover for the current issue, which instead features Heath Ledger (who lost – ouch) – or so this person had heard. However, the story that the two were in wasn’t in that issue, so maybe it just got pushed back? Hard to say…

I also transcribed a really fascinating interview with a man putting together footage from a concert/series of concerts from ’69 (the same year as Woodstock). This series was apparently given no coverage, and most people haven’t heard of it, even though it had names like Sly & The Family Stone, Stevie Wonder, BB King and Nina Simone, and a speech from Jesse Jackson. It’s African-American performers in-front of an African-American audience in Harlem – which brings up the question of whether or not the lack of attention was unintentional (or intentional) racism. Supposedly the police didn’t want to be involved with the event, so the Black Panthers were called in as security. Fascinating stuff. I don’t know the name of the concert series, but the film is supposedly going to be in Sundance next January – so look for it (I’ll remind you, provided I can keep this running that long).

Lots of improvements are being made around the office – we interns who know very little of the office goings-on are assuming it’s because of the upcoming MTV television show. Of course, it could just be that the office needs the improvements and we’re just bitter.

Speaking of which, we’ve (we being me and the current team of RS interns) been brainstorming fun tasks for the RS interns/contestants to do – who can transcribe a Pete Wentz interview the fastest (and correctly)? who can assemble the news packet the quickest, with the best stories, in the right order? who can pick up someone’s lunch the quickest? Of course, the contestants on the show will probably get to do things like go to shows and get free swag/CDs (neither of which we get (to do)), but it’s fun to think they’ll be doing the same menial tasks we face every week.

I’d like to give you more than this after my extended absence (last semester senior year can really be a bitch, huh?), but I’m afraid I’m coming up short. I was originally going to do a cover-themed post, but instead I’m working on a themed post that will be much more interesting for all parties involved (basically themed around mixes that I’ve received from friends within the past six months or so). Ideally it’ll be up this weekend, but I’m interning more than usual this week (it’s spring break for some of the other interns), so it may take a little longer. Still, I’ll hopefully have another Internial on Thursday, and for now I’ve got a little something to whet your hungry ears–

As I mentioned in the history of my music life, I started out on musicals. This love was also held by my mother, and we eventually spread that love to my cousin, Kelly, who grew to love them more than anyone I know. In her good taste, she introduced me to Jason Robert Brown.

He’s really quite amazing – his music conveys emotion in really unique, unusual ways. He makes use of strange chords and dissonance. Anyone who’s taken a few 20th Century Music courses will probably really appreciate that aspect of some of his songs — but more than that, anyone who has been looking for musicals with modern significance (beyond “RENT”), or who just likes musicals in general will probably enjoy his work.

He posted a new song, “In This Room” (download), on his website. On his blog, he writes that he wrote it for his wedding: “I wrote it for my wedding, where it was performed by two magnificent singers who happen to my two of my closest friends, Lauren Kennedy and Rozz Morehead, accompanied by my favorite string quartet, Ethel.”

It’s a gorgeous, very moving song, and actually reminds me a bit of my favorite song from his Off-Broadway work, “The Last Five Years,” which is “Goodbye Until Tomorrow / I Could Never Rescue You” (download). The whole work is pretty incredible (though I admit I’ve only heard 3/4 of it), and I’ve been assured that “Songs For A New World” is equally amazing, but I’ve only heard two songs from that. He also has a non-musical collection of songs that I’m really curious about but know nothing of (if you have it, hook a sister up)…