TRANSIT STRIKE: CRITICS' WEEK. Despite the strike hubbub, let us not forget that this is a very, very special time of year: Critics' Week at WNYC! All week, Soundcheck hosts music critics who look back on 2005 and identify the year's audio highlights. On Tuesday's installment, Anastasia Tsioulcas used the phone to evade the strike hassle and discuss her picks, which are listed at her worthwhile blog Cafe Aman. (Previously, Blog About Town covered WNYC's "Must Have" Festival and the recommendations that came out of that.)

Also on WNYC this month (AM and FM and online) is Celebrating Oscar, not a tribute to the Academy Awards or a Sesame Street character or an Odd Couple character but a salute to the folksinger and radio host Oscar Brand, who has been on the air on WNYC for an amazing sixty years (apparently earning him a spot in the Guiness Book of World Records). During that time, Brand boldly resisted McCarthy-era repression by giving airtime to blacklisted folksingers. I, um, admit that I have never listened to Brand's Folksong Festival (Saturdays at 10:00 pm on AM 820) but I'll do my best to get around to that soon.

And in strike news, it's increasingly apparent that the real shock will be if the strike isn't ended (or curtailed) at some point today.

Photo: David Marc Fischer