Two tech-minded stories fill the feature hole this week: Steve Perry's "Y2K: Endgames and Entropy Curves: Notes on the shape of things to come" ("Y2K problems, on the whole, are far likelier to be chronic and nagging than acute and short-lived, and more likely to result in economic than civil upheaval.") and Lee Gardner's "Station Break: Will low-power FM change the face of radio? Not if the broadcasting industry can help it" ("Corporate radio has gotten bigger while small, locally focused radio has, at best, remained marginalized.").

The Nose sniffs at the tobacco industry, the Poppleton Village Center, and unwanted political donations.

Brennen Jensen recalls Noxzema's origins in Charmed Life.

In Underwhelmed, Sandy Asirvatham second-guesses the wired lifestyle, while in Cyberpunk, Joab Jackson second-guesses his own take on the OpenNET Coaltion. 8 Upper's Tom Scocca is looking forward to the sideshows of the NBA season.

In Books, Michael Anft writes about Christian Parenti's Lockdown America: Police and Prisons in the Age of Crisis, a class-conscious take on the penal system.

Mike Giuliano reviews the race-conscious artwork of Adrian Piper in Art.

Bones features Charles Carter Glass' "Brown Baked Boy."

In Stage, Anft likes what Fells Point Corner Theatre did with George Bernard Shaw's Don Juan in Hell and Giuliano likes Jaffe Cohen's The King of Kings and I at the Theatre Project.

In Feedback, Daniel Schlosberg says the Baltimore Opera Company's production of Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Lyric Opera House passes muster (mostly); Lee Gardner notes that "guitar pop doesn't get any respect" at the Balti-Pop Festival at the 8 X 10; and Rjyan Kidwell enjoys schizophrenic, multi-sensorial DJ Shadow at Fletchers.

In No Cover, John Lewis finds Rumba Club's jazzy release, Espiritista, to be just fine.

In Film, Ian Grey gives the thumbs up to a bigger, edgier MicroCineFest, Luisa F. Ribiero gushes over The Straight Story and Humoresque, and Jack Purdy can't believe how good Being John Malkovich is, though The Flim-Flam Man is merely amusing.

Susan Fradkin can't get enough of the crabcake at El Rancho in Belly Up.

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