It's the media buzz meter with Howard Kurtz.

I was talking yesterday, as you might recall, about the passing of Brian Wilson, the founder

and really the essence, the heart, the beating heart of the Beach Boys.

And I think a lot of it depends on age.

If you came to know the Beach Boys music later in life, that's one thing.

If you, at the time that Surfer Rock was being, you know, virtually invented before these guys matured and moved on to, I mean, some of these incredible songs, like good vibrations and God only knows. In fact, I'm looking at, you know, when I was

online yesterday, I saw that Sting sat down with this guitar and did a rendition of God Only Knows.

And then there was a sort of a cooperative effort by artists as famous as Elton John singing that song.

But anyway, I mentioned that the Beatles had been inspired by them,

and Paul McCartney wrote the following.

Brian had that mysterious sense of musical genius

that made his song so achingly special.

The notes he heard in his head and passed to us were

simple and brilliant at the same time. I loved him and was privileged to be around his bright shining

light for a little while. How will we continue without Brian Wilson? God only knows. It's a nice tribute from McCartney.

And, you know, I was driving to work today and the Bureau here in Washington, you know,

a couple of Boxing the Capitol. And I'm coming down Independence Avenue, and there are police

cars with the flashing lights going virtually everywhere.

There are fences that didn't exist a couple of days ago at some intersections.

There were giant construction-type trucks, and they were blocking everything but one lane. Now, I'm not saying

this to complain about the traffic. The point is, when this military parade happens,

a lot of that is going to be blocked off for security reasons, obviously. And it was just so striking because I was taking the route that takes you past the monuments and everything.

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