<b>Me:</b> We're gonna go see <a href="http://www.brokebackmountainmovie.com/getflash.html">Brokeback Mountain</a> tonight.<br>
<b>Elizabeth:</b> [Gasp of horror!]<br>
<b>Me:</b> What? What's with the gasp of horror?<br>
<b>Elizabeth:</b> Steel yourself.<br>
<b>Me:</b> Why? Am I gonna cry? I'm not afraid of crying. I cry all the time, anyway.<br>
<b>Elizabeth:</b> No, I don't think you're going to cry. But you might wince. A lot.<br>
<b>Me:</b> Oh.<br>
Stephen Brown argues that Sid Vicious and Mozart shared the quality of primitivism, by which he means the winnowing away of unnecessary complications. I see his point with Sid, but in Mozart's case, I see it as the essence of the refining fire. Still, a good read and well-argued, even though, IMHO, wrong.
<I>Caution:</I> This is just a theory.
Frankly, I think this site has more Ronald Reagan than it needs, but it does have Richard Nixon's farewell address (man, I never get tired of that one) and a ton of other winners—in both text and MP3. Obviously slanted towards stuff they have audio files for, but a goldmine for those of us who appreciate good oratory.
<I>Ampulex compressa</I> is a wasp that uses its stinger to temporarily paralyze and then hot-wire a cockroach so that the wasp can "drive" the larger critter home, where it can lay its egg on the roach host and seal it into a nursery. When the egg hatches, the larva chews its way into the host, where it feeds itself and then spins a cocoon.
Beautiful photographs of ghost towns.
Hilarious rant by anthropologist Roger Sandall over Lynn Truss' <I>Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of Everyday Life</I>. I have to confess I haven't read <I>TTTH</I>, not least because I didn't enjoy her hectoring <I>Eats Shoots and Leaves</I>. Geeze, if you're going to write a book about the failure of everybody to observe proper grammar, wouldn't you want it to be copyedited to a fair thee well? Ms. Truss didn't proof her proofer—and all I could think as she wagged her finger was that she should have washed it first.
Wes Phillips <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/012306requiem/">wrote last week</A> about the closing of yet more music stores and what this means for the future of music. How are the stores in your area doing?
Much as I like the prospect of being able to grunt a heartfelt Je ne regrette rien immediately before expiring, I know there will be too many what-ifs and wish-I-hadn'ts to make that even remotely possible. But here is one missed opportunity that won't flash before me, because John Atkinson has granted me a second chance.
An amplifier producing nearly 400Wpc, weighing close to 100 lbs...from <I>Rotel</I>, of all people? Don't they know their <I>place</I> in the audio world? Next thing you know, Krell will start making integrated amplifiers! Oops—Krell <I>is</I> making integrated amplifiers...