These Are Pretty, She Wrote
“These are pretty,” she wrote. Attached to the e-mail was a picture of the new Davone Ray loudspeaker. Pretty, indeed.
Stephen Mejias
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Some [Expletive] Cassette Shelves
I took her advice and went for a walk, but didn’t get more than half a block from the office before spotting two large, green dumpsters filled to their brims with paperwork, notebooks, and other office supplies. As I approached, something else caught my eye. Atop the pile of stuff were two fully-stocked, wooden cassette shelves in very good condition.
Now On Newsstands: Stereophile, Vol.33 No.7
The July 2010 issue of Stereophile is now on newsstands. It had been far too long since we received a letter complaining about our love of reviewing insanely expensive products, so we decided to make this our “Special Aspirations Issue,” featuring, almost exclusively, products you’d have to be CEO of BP to afford.
A Child That's Grown Old
I’m on the N train heading to Manhattan from Bay Ridge and there’s a fat Mexican baby in a dull red stroller. She is screaming her heart out. I’m trying to read an article in New York magazine recommended to me by a co-worker, but I don’t think I’ll make it to the end. I’ve read enough about addiction to know how ugly it can be; I don’t want to live through it again.
A Scotch Summer Mixtape
I’ve told you a bit about my favorite cassette label, Al Bjornaa’s Scotch">http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/why_cassettes/">Scotch Tapes, out of Batchawana Bay, Ontario, Canada. In this">http://www.imposemagazine.com/features/scotch-tapes-label-sampler">this Impose article, Al goes into more detail, explaining how he built the label, and revealing some of his big plans for the remainder of the year, which include 60-70 new tapes, 4-5 vinyl releases, approximately 20 lathe cuts, a dozen zines, a couple of 8-tracks, and a monster summer compilation. (You can also download a Scotch sampler.)
Underwood: Stories In Sound
Underwood, the new vinyl-only record label, which takes its name from the typewriter invented by Frank Wagner in 1896, was founded by writer Nathan Dunne. Dunne’s goal is to publish short stories on vinyl records. Underwood urges us to slow down, focus, listen, and enjoy.
New Jazz Arrivals at PREX
Good news for jazz and vinyl lovers: The world’s greatest record store (at least in New Jersey), the">http://www.stereophile.com/asweseeit/708awsi/index.html">the Princeton Record Exchange, just received a collection of over 2000 carefully maintained jazz titles, and they are now on sale, most priced between $1 and $4.99.
From the Archives: Buy Cheap Speakers, Have Fun!
Back in October 1989, former publisher Larry Archibald told us to just have fun and buy cheap speakers.
The First Annual Collect-i-Bowl Record Show
At this moment in time, there’s honestly no way I can justify spending more money on sweet, wonderful, soul-stirring vinyl records. I just can’t do it. I have bills to pay. I have records at home that I haven’t listened to yet. I have laundry to do and groceries to buy. But, damn, am I tempted to go to the First Annual Collect-i-Bowl Record Show at Brooklyn">http://www.brooklynbowl.com/">Brooklyn Bowl this Sunday.
My One and Only Prayer
I did not find what I was looking for at the">http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/jersey_city_record_riot/">the Jersey City Record Riot, but I did find two reasonably priced Tom Waits albums (Blue Valentine and Rain Dogs) and Peter Lang’s debut, The Thing at the Nursery Room Window, on John Fahey’s Takoma label. I had forced myself to be extremely selective, and, though the many kind and interesting vendors were making it difficult for me to hold back from buying more, I did in fact hold back.