I tend to like the extra features on most DVDs more than the main feature. With that in mind, here’s a look at the links that made up today’s post which was a (partial) review of “The Long Tail”:

• The Long Tail, the book itself. Recommended. Not flawless, but you won’t regret the time spent reading it because it’ll prompt some good thinking on your part. Then bop over to the blog and subscribe. Chris is in a run of posts about the book tour and other meta stuff about publishing right now, but he’ll be back onto the main topic before you know it, and in the meantime, browse the archives. If you skimmed over it, or don’t subscribe to the print magazine, re-read the original article, too.
• A reference to one of my own earlier posts, what it’s like at Web 2.0. It’s a take on not just the Web 2.0 conference, but the culture of Silicon Valley in general. We’re too often insular in our cultural view, and I think this is to our great peril.
• Me being a fanboy about Malcolm Gladwell, whose blog I enjoy greatly but don’t remember to read often enough. Mention of Gladwell prompts links to his books Blink and The Tipping Point. In both cases, I preferred the audio book to the print verisions, but that might be my own idiosyncrasies. Light reads, either one should be simple to breeze through during a few commutes or on a lazy summer weekend afternoon.
• The hook for my post was that we need to make connections between things like digital consumer culture and artistic movements like the house music explosion of the 80s and early 90s. Thus, a link to an exceptional history of house music. The link is to a bootleg copy of an old Phil Cheeseman article from DJ Magazine which may well be the most-pirated piece of music journalism on the Internet. (Here’s just some of the examples.)
• Just as cool is The Breaks, a site I actually regularly use as a reference when I’m listening to music. In the best comedy-of-the-commons tradition, it’s not always accurate, but it’s still useful. Sadly, as this Ask MetaFilter thread documents, a similar site Top Samples is now largely offline, but I’m still hoping it’ll come back.
• A quick shout-out to Reed Hastings, CEO and founder of Netflix. He’s an exceptional technology entrepreneur, a talented advocate for progressive causes, particularly around education, and helped influence Chris to focus more on the “Long Tail” branding for his idea.
• Two en passant book mentions, just because we bloggers love ’em: Freakonomics (hey, read the blog!) And Everything Bad is Good For You (hey, read the blog!)
• Umair Haque’s Bubble Generation was mentioned in the context of Umair’s assistance in Chris’ explorations of house music culture.
• And I wrapped up the post with a name-check to Joi Ito, for having been a genuine Chicago house DJ at the Limelight during the era in question.
• Finally, some stylistic notes that came up in the editing of the post: The word “catholic” is apparently not as commonly used in the sense that I wrote it. I might have learned its non-religious meaning from having looked up the word as a kid because I didn’t know the religious meaning, either. Also, I’ve used “Chris’s” and “Chris'” as possessive forms of Mr. Anderson’s name. Both are correct; Different style guides have different preferences, but this is my blog and I don’t give a damn, so I’m not consistent either way.