A low-rise block of retail buildings on Fifth Avenue, between Battery and Bell, was razed recently in preparation for a new office complex in the works since long before the dot-com crash. The half-block had been the site of Neko's, a nightclub that was closed twice as long as it was open; plus a couple of Asian restaurants, a fine-art-photography gallery, and a hair salon. But its best-known occupant had been the Ditto Tavern, a friendly little hole-in-the-wall drinkery that, in the mid '80s, had been one of the few places where you could see live musical gigs by the likes of Chris Cornell and Andrew Wood.
Luxuria Music, the Internet radio station offering "entertainment to stimulate the entire organism," was offed by radio mega-giant Clear Channel Communications (which had bought Luxuria's parent company in order to get its streaming-audio technologies). Co-founded by Chuck Kelley, Eric Bonerz (son of Bob Newhart Show dentist Peter Bonerz), and "The Millionaire" (formerly of Sub Pop ensemble Combustible Edison), the L.A.-based Luxuria featured live DJs playing a music format centered in lounge and exotica but straying into everything from pop electronica to surf music. Kelley said he'd try to start a new online station with similar eclectic tastes, but warned it could take months in today's hostile financial climate for Internet-content ventures.
Cliff Hillegass, 83, was the founder of the Cliffs Notes study guides. Buried in the obituaries, and neglected in the talk-show monologues about his death, was the fact that he'd borrowed the idea (with permission) from a Canadian publisher, Coles Notes. Yes, America's chief popularizer of "cheat sheets" swiped his concepts from somebody else.