LATEST ADDITIONS

One of the treats of my Thanksgiving was an up-close-and-personal analysis of my 14<SUP>th</SUP> century musical manuscript by Metropolitan Museum fellow Eric Weaver. I was reasonably sure of its date, based on the staff structure and mensuration, but Eric taught me an immense amount about parchment, calligraphy, illumination, monastic culture, and medieval guilds in the 30 minutes or so that he discussed my musical fragment. In short, he took an object I see above my hi-fi every day and made an epoch come alive&mdash;conversationally and off-the-cuff.

Bagheera is the mistress of the disbelieving glare.

Huckleberry, on the other hand, has mastered the air of angelic innocence.

Watched James Brown's widow Tomi (not Tammy, she’s touchy), on <I>Larry King</I> last nite. Larry, who was at low ebb last nite and looked real bored by being used as a platform in a marriage dispute, wasn't buying any of it. Larry, bad manicure and all, looks like he's interviewed enough grieving, flaky&ndash;as&ndash;hell rock star widows.

Is industrial design "intelligence made visible" or "attention-seeking frivolity"?

As we <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/032706ces">reported last March</A>, the Consumer Electronics Association decided to move the "high-performance audio" and "high-performance home theater" exhibits of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) to Las Vegas' Venetian Hotel in 2007. Here, then, in a blatant attempt to scoop my show-reporting <I>Stereophile</I> colleagues, is my picture of the new CES venue. I actually took this picture last year, not in anticipation of the change in show venue, but simply because I’m a sucker for the ersatz-European ambience of Las Vegas hotel-casinos like the Venetian. And whatever the advantages/disadvantages of the Venetian for demonstrating audio equipment, you have to admit that it’s picturesque!

The <I>Stereophile</I> editors are getting ready for CES 2007 and will be reporting live from the show starting Monday, January 8. Join John Atkinson, Wes Phillips, Larry Greenhill, Robert Deutsch, Stephen Mejias, and Jon Iverson as they file their reports and photos.