LATEST ADDITIONS

Classical music specialist Channel Classics, headquartered in the Netherlands, has begun releasing the first DSD-native, hybrid multichannel SACDs recorded in China. Issued under the Channel of China imprint, the first two titles, <I>Ambush on All Sides</I> (CCS-SA-80106), featuring Zhang Hong Yan on solo pipa, and <I>Soliloquy at Cold Mountain Temple</I> (CCS-SA-80406), with the China National Symphony Orchestra under Li Xin Cao, have recently reached the US. A third SACD, featuring Yu Hong Mei on erhu (CCS-SA-80206), is scheduled to reach European shelves at the end of September and the US three or four months later.

On September 14, Sonos, Inc., the company whose <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/mediaservers/1006sonos">well-designed wireless Controller</A> adorns the cover of our October issue, announced the release of its Sonos System Software 2.0. John Atkinson and I rode to the 11th floor of Manhattan's glitzy Trump International Hotel and Tower, overlooking Central Park's brilliant canopy of green trees, to meet with Sonos co-founder Thomas Cullen and CEO John MacFarlane for a brief demonstration.

Brahms loved making jokes. "And if a good one doesn't occur to me, then [I'll make] a bad one."

Huckleberry pays particular attention to his scratching post technique.

Bagheera always looks so intense. She's either polishing up her unified field theory or plotting world domination.

I love rules of thumb, deep wisdom that can be sketched in verbal shorthand. The website <I>Painter Creativity</I> offers 10 rules for naive artists and designers, but they could very easily apply to any freelancer. Most of these are pretty obvious, but when you're hustling for work and worried about that monthly rent bill, you can panic sometimes and fall for the old "I'll gladly pay you Tuesday" line.

That's "roadie" as in cyclist. Decidedly non-PC and bound to offend folks who object to coarse language, but pretty funny for the rest of us.