Sugarplum Fairies
<b><i>Country International Records</b></i><br>
Starfish Records<br>
LATEST ADDITIONS
Top of the Pops: RIP
The Beeb is canceling <I>Top of the Pops</I>. Not that I ever watched it, but it's one of those things like the Grand Canyon that always seemed like it was eternal.
I Love My Job!
Friends like John Marks actually send me stuff like this John Derbyshire <I>National Review</I> book review of Nicholas Wade's <I>Before the Dawn</I>. Derbyshire's essay is argumentative and intriguing—the very qualities that Wade seems to have mastered in his book.
Gaiman on Moore
On his website, Neil Gaiman pulls off the difficult accomplishment of making me want to read Alan Moore's <I>Lost Girls</I> in a longer version of an essay published in <I>Publisher's Weekly</I>.
Inviting Us Into the Forbidden City
IBM has announced a "philantropic cultural heritage initiative" that will allow folks to virtually tour the 800-building Forbidden City complex using immersive cell-chip technology developed for gaming.
Great Chess
<I>Mark Lowery's Exciting World of Chess</I> reproduces two of the immortal chess games of all time: the 1851 "Immortal Game" between Anderssen and Kieseritzky and the 1852 Anerssen-Dufresne "Evergreen" game. The best part, if you struggle with chess notation, Lowery has animated the games so you can watch them unfold—at your speed.
In Simple Black and White
Some things have led us to consider what we want — exactly, more or less, I suppose — from music. Feel free to substitute "the band," or "art," or even "life," for music. That is:
The Download Waltz
I had a nice chat recently with Mark Berry, publicist for classical music’s Naxos label. Naxos, for those unfamiliar, is a label with one hell of a back story.
Industry Update
<B>Hansen Audio:</B> Canadian loudspeaker manufacturer Hansen Audio, best known for "high-end luxury lifestyle speakers," has named Wes Bender senior director of US sales and marketing.
The Next Big Thing?
When I <A HREF="http://stereophile.com/news/051506nht/">visited</A> NHT's manufacturing facility in early May, I was struck by a comment managing director Chris Byrne made when describing NHT's <A HREF="http://stereophile.com/standloudspeakers/1105nht/">Xd loudspeaker</A>, which employs sophisticated digital signal processing (DSP) for its crossovers and equalization functions. "You do realize that we could have never incorporated such complex slopes in a physical crossover," Byrne proselytized.