NORTH MISSISSIPPI ALLSTARS: <I>Electric Blue Watermelon</I><BR>
ATO (According To Our) Records 0026 (CD). 2005. Jim Dickinson, prod.; Roland Janes, Pete Matthews, Kevin Houston, engs. AAD? TT: 49:23<BR>
Performance <B>****</B><BR>
Sonics <B>****</B>
As audiophiles, we all started somewhere, and the important fact is, we all started with a love of music. When it came to music playback equipment, more than a few of us remember the fold-up record player stacked with 45s, or the little transistor radio tucked under our pillow at night with a low-fi, one-channel earpiece attached.
"Subwoofers are boring," whined John Atkinson when we were dickering about column inches for my <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/1105thiel">review</A> of the Thiel CS2.4 loudspeaker in this issue. "I know they're important, but I just don't get excited reading about them."
The holiday season is upon us, and if you have someone on your gift list—especially a youngster, but really, anyone—whom you'd like to introduce to the wonders of world music, I've got just the ticket. And even if not, read on, because this story will do you good.
And Art Dudley tells me, too. He tells me:
"Blog up, yet?" asks JA,<br>
on his way out to get a sandwich.<br>
Of course I found this survey on the effectiveness of aluminum foil hats at stopping governmental brainwave manipulation funny—the first five times I received it!
I'd love to write about something else, but this story keeps going and going and going. Now we have reports that Sony's malware has opened consumers' (yes, <I>customers</I>, people who actually bought their CDs) computers to other malware.
Memo to all of us smug Apple computadors: Sony doesn't discriminate. It turns out, Sony BMG is using SunnCom DRM to install kernal extensions on your machines. That's in addition to the F4i root kit infestation that PC users are complaining about.
I was checking out <A HREF="http://www.hackaday.com/">Hack A Day</A>, which listed an iPod remote control hack. When I pulled it up, it turned out to be a controller that works off of T + A's remote control buss. Pretty cool, if somewhat narrowly focused.