The Times today presents a rich picture of the tumultuous, art-filled, countercultural history of New York City's East Village. But, for me, this could be a foreign land, a world away from my slice of the Apple.

It's a striking thing about this city. Far from the monolithic, liberal-filled, latte-drinking island of sameness it's often made out to be, New York is actually a collection of small towns, or even neighborhoods within neighborhoods. The East Village isn't the West Village, or Soho, or Chelsea, or Battery Park, or the UES. (I haven't even mentioned the boroughs...) And any one of those areas has smaller slices of life within them.

NYC is very "micro," and it needs to be seen, and visited, and explored that way.

Which is why you shouldn't come here and eat dinner at Sbarro's in Times Square.

The Times has a rather lengthy piece today about complex computer systems. Contrary to the common notion that hackers are the biggest threat to systems, it is actually the system itself, especially in large, complicated programs such as telephony and air traffic control applications, that are the weak point. Poorly written code, known affectionately as "bugs," are the problem, and they usually arise when a confluence of unforeseen (that is, not-tested-for) events happen.

Which all makes me kind of worry when reading this headline in Reuters: "Japan Eyes Robots to Support Aging Population."

Oh, I'm sure it will all turn out fine...

Petraeus:

In fact, later this month, the Marine Expeditionary Unit deployed as part of the surge will depart Iraq...followed by the withdrawal of a brigade combat team without replacement in mid-December and the further redeployment without replacement of four other brigade combat teams and the two surge Marine battalions in the first seven months of 2008, until we reach the pre-surge level of 15 brigade combat teams by mid-July 2008.

Am I missing something, or did Gen. Petraeus today give the terrorists a timetable for the withdrawal of certain troops? Is there really much difference between this language, and anything Democrats have ever talked about?

I'm assuming, of course, her performance last night was a comment on the current state of consumer culture. A neo-marxist critique of our spectacled society gone bad, the dropping of pretense about image and look and performance and art. A scathing remark on the culture of the celebrity, where everyone wants to be Someone, yet no One is Someone...

If not, wow, that really, like, blew chunks.

But if there's anything we learned from last night's MTV Video Music Awards, it's that the state of pop music today is...not really any different than the state of pop music at any other time in recent history.

For music "aficionados" (of course, ignore the subjectivity of music and its appreciation for now...), pop music, especially reflected in pop culture venues like the VMAs and the Grammy awards, always has a frustrating mix of marketing-driven only-in-it-for-the-money monstrosities, mixed in with some damn good talent.

And last night's show was no different. Plenty of hacks: Rhianna and the "Umbrella" song, which I just don't get; Alicia Keys, who simply bores me; the Britney meltdown, of course.

But Chris Brown's dancing was top notch (despite the overt reference to Michael Jackson: why do we need a "new" Michael Jackson?). And Justin Timberlake can actually sing! And, for my money, Kayne West, who also performed last night, is one of the most talented and prolific performers out there today. In fact, his mix of music and outspoken political activism is in the grand tradition of folk artists such as Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan; he's just doing it with a different style. (Just like Public Enemy did, before him...)

Maybe it just seems like it gets harder and harder to sift through the bad to get to the good each year. I'm not sure how different that is, though, than the state of music over the last 30 or so years, as we lament the current state of the music industry. We remember the Led Zeppelin and REM, and seem to always forget the cheezy one-hit wonders of the day.

Today, in fact, thanks to the Internet and the rise of the indie label, there's more opportunity for bands out there, and lots of great music to choose from.

Spend some time listening to Seattle's KEXP to hear what's going on -- hardly a band you'll see on MTV.