On Tuesday afternoon, the News & Observer blogs will be moving to a new system and a new server. This change will make getting to our blogs quicker and easier. Most of the blogs will change their appearance, while blogs like Taking Stock and Under the Dome will remain the same.

This change requires nothing from the reader. There will be a link to the older posts, and you won't need to change your bookmarks. If you have trouble finding your favorite blog or you have a comment, please email feedback@newsobserver.com.

— Rachel Carter

I'll be on vacation June 16-20, off to the wilds of Colorado for some R&R. I won't have computer access while I'm gone, so "On the Beat" is going dark for a bit. By the time I'm back on the grid, we should have a fancy new blog-publishing system up and running -- more on that later.

Meantime, everybody stay cool and I'll be back soon.

This just in, R. Kelly has been acquitted of all charges in the child-pornography trial against him in Chicago. Wow. Click through to see a 2003 feature on various people's opinions about Kelly's music and legal difficulties, written at a time when a not-guilty verdict seemed like a highly unlikely outcome.

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This has been a pretty great week for onetime Triangle homegirl Tift Merritt. Thursday night, she was on CBS' "Late Show With David Letterman" to sing backup vocals for her idol Emmylou Harris. They first met in North Carolina in 2002, when Merritt was on the bill for Harris' Concerts for a Landmine-Free World. And it was possible because Merritt had a brief stretch of time off in New York before hitting the road again (she's flying to Norway today).

"I'm still walking on air," Merritt says. "It was awesome, like a Christmas present in June. When she asked me to do it, I couldn't believe it. We had some time off, but I would've dropped anything I was doing to make sure I was there. And it was definitely fun to go to 'Letterman' and then home to my own apartment."

Merritt's "Letterman" spot followed news from earlier in the week that her song "Broken" had picked up a song-of-the-year nomination in the Americana Music Association Awards. That will be presented Sept. 18 at Nashville's Ryan Auditorium (where this picture was taken in 2005).

As it happens, both Merritt and Harris have shows coming up at Raleigh's NC Museum of Art -- Harris on June 25 and Merritt on Aug. 23. And Merritt's tour schedule includes a "Letterman" date of her own on June 25.

Check Friday's paper for an interview with Goner, the very fine piano-bass-drums trio that has always been guitar-free, more or less.

"We actually tried using guitar for a show at Humble Pie once, because the keyboard broke," says Goner bassist Greg Eyman. "We're always about using whatever's free, or can be borrowed. But that didn't work out."

As you can see from this flyer, Goner plays tonight at Slim's. The cover charge will also get you a copy of Goner's excellent new album -- this weekend's best live-music value!

...The only one of 2008, and the 13th won't fall on a friday again until next February. So make preparations for that special day with our customized Friday the 13th Bad-Luck Mix, a multi-genre celebration of the many moods of misfortune. Bust a mirror and collect 'em all:

Dr. John, "Right Place Wrong Time" (1973) -- A meditation on how timing is everything.

Ludacris, "Rock and a Hard Place" (2000) -- "I'm stuck in between a rock and a hard place/Bad luck is what results from my paper chase."

Alanis Morissette, "Ironic" (1995) -- The lyrics describe situations that are less ironic than luckless.

Mick Jagger, "Lucky in Love" (1985) -- In which our hero suffers ill fortune in everything but romance.

Black Crowes, "Bad Luck Blue Eyes Goodbye" (1992) -- "I know one million ways/To always pick the wrong thing to say."

Hot Chip, "Bad Luck" (2005) -- A highly nasty (and X-rated) kiss-off.

Social Distortion, "Bad Luck" (1992) -- Almost as nasty.

Warren Zevon, "Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School" (1980) -- Scenario of the title has the protagonist "down on my knees in pain."

John Lee Hooker, "Bad Luck and Trouble" (1965) -- Proposes ill fortune and trouble as the things all people have in common.

Dinah Washington, "Bad Luck" (1959) -- Fortunately, bad luck is something you can get used to.

Peter Stampfel, "Random Violence" (1986) -- "I don't know you but I'm gonna kill you, sorry for meeting this way/You are a stranger but I'm even stranger, and I'm gonna blow you away."

Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, "Bad Luck (Part 1)" (1975) -- Bad luck is something you can catch like a cold.

Clint Black, "A Good Run of Bad Luck" (1993) -- Twirling the odds to win over his lady love.

R.E.M. rolled through its home away from home Tuesday night, the Triangle, with a show that was right fine despite the suffocating heat. One great history-buff moment came during the encore, when R.E.M.'s long-ago producers Mitch Easter and Don Dixon did a cameo on "Sitting Still." It was very cool, although not nearly as emotional as R.E.M.'s previous onstage reunion in Raleigh. Click through to see the review of that 2003 show, which is still one of my favorite concert memories.

Meanwhile, R.E.M.'s Mike Mills and Peter Buck were reportedly spotted at Cat's Cradle later in the evening, at the Mudhoney/Birds of Avalon show.

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So R.E.M. has been on my mind of late, for obvious reasons. Then I came across this story about director Tarsem, whose new movie sounds both insane and fascinating -- and I remembered what R.E.M. and Tarsem have in common, which was the topic of a story I did a long, long time ago. See the click-through for more.

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Supposedly, New York hip-hop collective Wu Tang Clan's April 27 show at Raleigh's Lincoln Theatre was postponed rather than canceled. Be that as it may, there's not been a peep as to when a rescheduled date might turn up. So while you're waiting, make yourself useful with a game of WuChess. Not surprisingly, the Wu bunch provides some philosophy to go with it:

"The game of chess, is like a swordfight. You must think first, before you move. Toad style is immensely strong, and immune to nearly any weapon. When it's properly used, it's almost invincible."

(Found via Pop Candy.)

Sunday's paper has a big ol' story about R.E.M. and Don Dixon, whose shared history goes back 25 years to Dixon and Mitch Easter's co-production of R.E.M.'s massively acclaimed first two albums (something Dixon also writes about in the new book "Making Notes: Music of the Carolinas"). Click through to see a 2000 feature about a reunion of Dixon's old band, Arrogance, which broke up a few months after R.E.M.'s "Murmur" came out in 1983.

Arrogance has continued playing out occasionally since that 2000 reunion, and the group has an Aug. 23 show at Cat's Cradle. R.E.M. plays Tuesday at TWCMPAWC; and Dixon plays with his band the Jump Rabbits Friday at the Berkeley Cafe.

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Word is that Jim McKay, one of the most iconic sportscasters of the past century, has died at age 86. For those of us of a certain age, it just wouldn't have been a Saturday afternoon without this.

In Friday's paper, you'll find some Jimmy Buffett verbiage about his Parrothead followers -- some of whom liken his shows to fertility rituals. Buffett plays Saturday night at that big outdoor joint, his first outdoor show in Raleigh since 2002. Click through to see a bunch of stuff that ran the last time he played Walnut Creek.

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This has actually been around a while, but we just stumbled across it: Presenting the "Raleigh Whop," not to be confused with "Madison Time."

(Thanks, Rob.)

Here's a North Carolina point of interest about Jakob Dylan's Friday night show in Raleigh: Local guitar hero Audley Freed, most recently seen in cartoon form on "The Simpsons," is playing guitar in Dylan's band. It's the highest-profile tour for Freed since his stint last year in Peter Frampton's band. Showtime is 9 p.m. Friday at the Lincoln Theatre.

(Thanks, Bob.)

This might look like an album cover, but it's actually the cover of a book -- "Making Notes: Music of the Carolinas" (Novello Festival Press, $22.95), a collection of 64 essays about music 'round these parts. A number of the book's contributors, including Tarheel pop legends Don Dixon and Peter Holsapple, will appear at a Thursday night reading at Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh. It starts at 7 p.m., and I wouldn't be surprised if a song or two got played as well.