November seems like a good time to curl up with some hot tea, some petites madeleines, and a copy of Marcel Proust’s Swann’s Way, with Vinteuil’s Sonata playing softly on the hi-fi. Wait -- is that even possible? Does such music exist? Blair Sanderson investigates this tantalizing classical conundrum.

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Lil' Wayne was the most nominated artist at Wednesday night's Grammy Awards nomination special, pulling in a total of eight nominations including Album of the Year. Other Album of the Year contenders included Coldplay's Viva La Vida, Radiohead's In Rainbows, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss' Raising Sand and Ne-Yo's Year of the Gentleman. The Grammy Awards ceremony will air on February 8, 2009. [PopEater.com]

Beyonce scores her fifth chart-topping solo hit this week with "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)," which is number one on the Hot 100. [Billboard.com]

Next April, Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones and Sonic Youth will perform a work by composer Takehisa Kosugi for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company in honor of what would have been the forward-thinking choreographer's 90th birthday. [Guardian.co.uk]

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If 1991 was the year that punk broke, 1993 was the year that Alternative took hold. Nirvana and Pearl Jam delivered follow-ups to their blockbusters, rock radio was ruled by their imitators Stone Temple Pilots, pop radio saw more guitars than it did in years thanks to R.E.M. and their followers like the Gin Blossoms. Thanks to PJ Harvey, Liz Phair, Belly, Luscious Jackson, Juliana Hatfield, and the Breeders, it was the year of Women in Rock -- so coined by papers looking hard for a trend -- but Guyville didn't cower either, thanks to major-label debuts by Urge Overkill and the Afghan Whigs. And that was just in the U.S.!

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