Stephen Mejias

Jimmy Boyd's "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus." Columbia, 10" (MJV 152).

You've become acquainted with The Daily Beast, but do you know The">http://www.dailyaudiophile.com/">The Daily Audiophile? The two are kind of similar. On the former, you can read about nude New York City dinners, while on the latter, you can read about hi-fi reviews. See what I mean?

Then there's this">http://www.pbase.com/sid_presley/the_record_collection">this site full of awesome Asian record covers from the 60s and 70s. (Thanks Edenhttp://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/project_sapphire_at_the_end_o…;.)

The walls of the Stereophile offices have been shaking to the sounds of Mogwai's latest, The">http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/the_hawk_is_howling/">The Hawk is Howling. Yes, we know that hawks don't howl. (Or do they?) We also know the difference between a hawk and a bald eagle. (Sourpusses.)

It was a certain sunless Sunday afternoon and we were listening to some records at the Brooklyn Navy Yard's DeVore">http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/112206custom/">DeVore Fidelity factory. Something had just come to an end, and I decided to take a look through a box of LPs to find something new. I found an album that was still sealed in its plastic wrapper. It was the seventh installment of Sonic Youth's SYR series, the album that started">http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/040808immediately/">started it all for me. I was shocked. Shocked. I was all exclamation points and italics.

For Halloween, I dressed up as myself: rigid and morose. My costume was a smash at all the parties. However, the Best Costume Award goes to SnowGhost">http://snowghostmusic.com/">SnowGhost Music's Greg McGrath. Greg dressed up as an MP3. He explained:

I've learned, unfortunately—even painfully—that not all vinyl sounds good. Crazy, I know. I would like to think that great performances make great recordings, and that's all there is to it. But it's not that simple. Even the greatest musical performance can be slashed to death by a bad recording, or by the foolish acts of the music industry. I learned the hard way. Is there any other way to learn?