More links:

• Two new blogs to recommend: Angelika Beener's Alternate Takes and Ted Panken's Today Is The Question.
• Ethan Iverson spends three hours with Henry Threadgill for the BBC. Results (transcriptions and more) are up.

The week in classical news:

• As if things weren't getting bad enough at New York City Opera to be compared to the breakup of a doomed relationship, one of its unions is now suing to stop the company's move out of Lincoln Center.

If there's such a thing as cello mojo, Alisa Weilerstein has it. Not only did she make her Carnegie Hall debut at age 15 and perform for President Obama in 2009, but last year she was also chosen by conductor Daniel Barenboim to perform the Elgar Cello Concerto with the Berlin Philharmonic.

Serious race fans are eager for one of the country's most anticipated races of the year, when the Indianapolis 500 starts Sunday. For non-serious race fans, the big event starts Saturday, with the 43rd running of the Kinetic Grand Championship.

The self-professed "toughest sheriff in America" vows to remain in office despite facing a growing number of serious problems.

The one thing you need to know about Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is that he craves publicity. He's regularly on local TV news, cable talk shows, even international programs. But the 78-year old lawman now finds himself dealing with the kind of publicity no elected official wants.

Kentucky is home to Fort Knox and Fort Campbell, but military families that don't live close to those installations may not be getting all the support they need. Lexington Vice Mayor Linda Gorton knows what it's like to have a child deployed overseas. Her son served in Iraq and Afghanistan with the Army Reserves. "It translates into a lot of stress. And I personally think when the community can rally around and support those folks, it makes for a healthier community."

Two central Kentuckians are lending a helping hand with tornado relief work in Joplin, Missouri. Craig Infanger and his wife Janis got the call from the Bluegrass Chapter of the American Red Cross around 4:30 Thursday afternoon. By 8 am Friday, they were bound for Joplin. The Infangers have volunteered for the Red Cross with other disaster relief work, including Hurricane Katrina, and they were eager to help victims of the devastating tornado.

Two floors above the bodegas of Sunset Park in Brooklyn, Karsh Kale walks me through his digital orchestra. The composer is known for his use of Indian instruments to create lush electronic music.

"Here we have staccato cello," he says. "Then there's this horn effect sound, just to add drama."

Daphne Willis seems to be on the verge of something big. Her debut album, What to Say, helped her build critical and commercial momentum last year. She moved from Chicago to Nashville. She surrounded herself with new talent. She began to write more of her own music. And, this spring, Willis put out her second album, Because I Can.

Although widely associated with Europe, techno music was invented in Detroit and its suburbs in the early 1980s by young African-Americans armed with drum machines, futurist ideals and a predilection for Kraftwerk. Artists like Juan Atkins, Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson used whatever technology they could get their hands on to pioneer a cutting-edge sound made up of growling synths and driving dance beats. In the process, they set in motion one of the essential musical movements of the 20^th century.