"The vibe here is amazing," he said. "It proves that the music business is great. The record business may be a little shaky right now, but the music business is good. Music itself is a spiritual thing. We attach business to it, but music comes from the soul, the heart. And you can see here that the passion is still there."

Tex-Max

A three-week long trial that has swung from the religious mysteries in "The Da Vinci Code" to the more tedious world of copyright law approaches its climax on Monday.

Kind of a dig, if you're Larry Lessig, now isn't it?

'Da Vinci Code' Final Chapter to Unfold

INSIDE MAN

A tense heist flick by Spike Lee? That's right, this dangerous cat-and-mouse criminal caper may be the most atypical Spike Lee Joint yet. Nothing is as it seems in the political thriller starring Denzel Washington, Clive Owen and Jodie Foster. In the film, a cop has to talk down a bank robber after the perfect heist turns into a hostage situation, but even as the police officer works, a Manhattan power broker contacts him with the news that the heist is more than it seems. Opens Friday.

CAN'T MISS: Inside Man

What we need to understand is that the vast majority of the Iraqi people want the coalition to succeed. They want better futures for themselves and their families. They do not want the extremists to win. And they are risking their lives every day to secure their country.

What We've Gained In 3 Years in Iraq

Ultimately, I will work to secure the reality of a democratic, liberal, peaceful Iraq -- a beacon for freedom in the Middle East. This is not merely a wish but an article of faith. Having lived in London for the majority of my years in exile, I appreciate the importance of liberty for both guaranteeing democracy and ensuring human development.

I am hopeful that with Iraqi determination, and the support of the multinational force, we can defeat the terrorists and make Iraq the first democratic Arab country. I believe in working toward a peaceful, stable and nuclear-free Middle East, where Iraq is not the rogue state that it was under the previous regime.

The road ahead will be tough, but the Iraqi people have demonstrated their bravery, determination and resolve. The world should not falter at such a crucial stage in history.

The writer is prime minister of Iraq.

My Vision For Iraq

In Zuma, players shoot marbles at a moving chain of colored marbles in matching combinations. Match three or four red marbles together and the chain shortens by three or four red marbles; if the chain gets too far, it's game over. Zuma takes no time to learn and is quickly habit-forming.

Simplicity Wins With Non-Gamers

History professor Deborah Vess asks students to download 39 films to their video-capable iPods so she doesn't have to spend class time screening the movies.

Georgia College Pushes for iPod Ingenuity

When I look back, the only person in power that seemed to really want to get to know me was Lorne Michaels.

I play a wise sage who delivers pizzas and warns the kids what the house will do to them on Halloween.

The good side of fame was having Tom Cruise tell me how much he loved my movie and how talented I was.

What was the down side?

Working on His Movie Star Badge

One listener in particular is responsible for the new mood: Joan B. Kroc, the widow of Ray A. Kroc, the man who built the McDonald's chain. Just before her death in 2003, she arranged to leave NPR a gift of about $230 million. That was bigger than anyone at NPR could ever have imagined — so big that the interest alone has paid for most of those new jobs. Since the gift was announced, in November 2003, nothing at NPR has been quite the same.

Money Changes Everything

Cylinder recordings, the first commercially produced sound recordings, are a snapshot of musical and popular culture in the decades around the turn of the 20th century. They have long held the fascination of collectors and have presented challenges for playback and preservation by archives and collectors alike.

With funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the UCSB Libraries have created a digital collection of over 6,000 cylinder recordings held by the Department of Special Collections. In an effort to bring these recordings to a wider audience, they can be freely downloaded or streamed online.

On this site you will have the opportunity to find out more about the cylinder format, listen to thousands of musical and spoken selections from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and discover a little-known era of recorded sound. Click the search button to begin, or sample some of our favorite selections in the featured cylinder section or by listening to online streaming radio.

Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project