"I’m not asking for the world here. I really don’t think I am. I would merely like to suggest some manners, no different to those used by anyone out there who wouldn’t walk in front of someone engaged with a painting in an art gallery, or emit a loud noise during the crucial speech in a play. Music needs a certain environment and respect to have full effect. And no – that is not, not, elitist." I, too, could have punched the man – it was clearly a man – who, in what seemed like an attempt to show off about just how much he enjoyed the performance, was early to the gun. Why not let it breathe? Why not let it sit? Currie's description of applause as a train you get led onto is particularly good, as is his point about how applause-whenever can have its place. But there were only two people who should have been making Contacts with things at that point of the concert, and they were both on stage.

Nice article from Tom Phillips on a potted history of graphic scores – with a rather good gallery "attached", buried in the Guardian's IA.

Cracking analysis from Soren Johnson on Free-to-Play, how it shapes game design for both good and ill, and the opportunities it opens in its wake.

"To keep up with trends, we've developed some iPhone stencils and sketchsheets that'll make the lo-fi stage of development a lot quicker." Passable iOS wireframe templates – but at least they're wireframey, rather than irritating pixel-perfect stencils that are all-too-easy to come by.

"You also know about the Wait. The Wait is Ahab’s white whale; it is America at Ellis Island; it is the night sky to the Greeks. The Wait is a disgusting amalgam of dreams, memories, hopes, desires, and expectations. In fact, barring all else, this may be the only thing that you know about Duke Nukem." A lovely piece of nostalgia – and review-system-breaking-analysis – from Jamin.

Strictly speaking, "The Best of *American* Journalism", but there's lots on here I'd like to read sometime.

"You're not understanding, are you? You're refusing to deal with what I'm telling you. The brain does the thinking. The meat."

"You're not understanding, are you? You're refusing to deal with what I'm telling you. The brain does the thinking. The meat."

"Planbeast is a free service that lets you find people to play your favorite Xbox 360 games with online. Planbeast allows you to schedule and join new online events for any Xbox Live-compatible title." And there was me all ready to build this (albeit just for Left4Dead)… and now somebody's gone and done it already.

"This is a series of lessons on Blues Guitar." Simple, but thorough, and with some score/tab as well. Probably worth plugging through.

"BUGFIXES: Fixed a bug that would sometimes cause characters other than Ken to appear on the Character Select screen during online play." Damn, that one's been affecting me too.

"It is probably safe to say that, despite decades of ever more spectacular Hollywood visions of extra-terrestial domination, humanity in its worst nightmares never imagined it would have to contend with spawn-camping aliens." Chris Remo documents the end of Tabula Rasa from the frontlines.