LATEST ADDITIONS

Somehow it all relates to Maslow's hierarchy of human needs.

When I was younger, I wanted to grow up to become a Major League baseball player. Baseball runs in my family. My grandfather played in the sugarcane fields, my father played in the street, my uncles played Little League. Each generation, it seemed, got better and closer. I had one uncle who made it all the way to a Major League farm club before injuring his knee.

Just a reminder: Tomorrow is International Talk Like A Pirate Day. If John Atkinson sticks to his guns and actually observes this holiday, it's going to make for an interesting day of jury duty.

At two points in my life, I experienced cluster headaches that lasted for about six months. They're completely incapacitating&mdash;not only is the pain crippling, but you live your life <I>anticipating</I> that every change in your internal balance is the onset of your next session.

John And Rudy Dopyera's collection of one-of-a-kind musical instruments is for sale at Elderly Instruments. If you know who they are, you've already clicked the external link, so I'll tell everybody else that the trademark "Dobro" is a contraction of DOpyera BROthers and their resonating instruments changed the sound of American music&mdash;blues, Hawaiian, bluegrass all rely on that haunting, sliding sound.

Don't get the wrong idea. I <I>don't</I> watch trash TV. I am <I>not</I> interested in the doings of people who are famous merely for being famous. I was probably the last to realize that Paris Hilton was not the name of a French hotel. But the kitchen TV just happened be tuned to Channel 4 when I switched it on while I was preparing dinner. No, I do <I>not</I> watch NBC's <I>Extra</I>, but as I was reaching for the remote I was stopped in my tracks by what I saw. The show was doing a segment on the new L.A. home of Jessica Aguilera, or Christina Simpson, or . . . well, it doesn't matter. What does matter was the host's mention of all the cool stuff the bimbette had had installed in her new pied-&#224;-terre: "...and a Sonos audio system, of course."

I've had the pleasure of using The Direct Line Stage Line Stage (originally called the Director) from Ron Sutherland for the past few months. This active line-stage preamp (it has no phono section) is available from Acoustic Sounds for $3000.