LATEST ADDITIONS

I just learned that William Gottlieb died last night. Like every jazz fan, many of my images of the jazz greats come directly from his photography. Billie Holiday with her head back, eyes closed; Django Reinhardt, cigarette a-dangle, fretting a run; a skinny Frank Sinatra looking beyond the microphone . . .all are indelible Gottlieb images. You'll probably see lots of obituaries in the next few days, but a visit to the Gottlieb collection at the Library of Congress might be the best place to remember him.

John Marks writes: "Peter Sykes, who played the Goldbergs live at HE Whatever in NYC, clued me in to the site www.larips.com.<P">Which is “spiral” backwards&mdash;and which argues for a solution to Bach’s temperament problem. Sykes finds it convincing.

There's a knock-knock at my door.

Actually, people knew it was there, they just didn't realize what it was. Be sure to check out the photo gallery.

Turns out that the 100 Acre Wood was a place "of disenchantment, where neurodevelopmental and psychosocial problems go unrecognized and untreated."

Scientists studying the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) think they've discovered the neurons responsible for making choices. Soon, they may tackle the <I>really</I> important issues, such as whether some audiophiles are genetically disposed towards choosing solid-state over tubes.

A short film by Ernest Cline. This monkey says yay! Or should that be "oook"?

A shockwave interactive analysis of Bach's dissertation on harmony&mdash;with an emphasis on the fugues.

Many audiophiles worry about their hearing and will protect it at all costs: one <I>Stereophile</I> writer has even written about wearing earplugs while driving. What do you do to protect your hearing?

April 24: On Saturday, April 22, the audio forum <A HREF="http://www4.head-fi.org/forums/index.php?">Head-Fi</A&gt; staged its first national meet at the Adria Ramada Inn and Conference Center in Bayside, NY. The meet, organized by Aaron Kovics (Head-Fi tag: immtbiker), occupied over 3300 square feet of floor space, most of which was divided into manufacturers' display tables and forum members' demonstration areas. Yep, you read that right&mdash;unlike ordinary hi-fi shows, the Head-Fi meets are opportunities for the attendees to show off their systems, sample and compare professionally manufactured components, and demonstrate their DIY projects. In fact, one of the biggest surprises I experienced when I attended a regional meet at the same venue last <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/111405headfi/">November</A&gt; was that some of the DIY projects not only sounded as good as the commercially available gear, they were built to standards of fit'n'finish that rival "real" products as well.