I was looking out the window. I was waiting for the plane to take off. I was wearing Monster Cable's Beats by Dr. Dre Studio headphones ($349.95). I was listening to Pens' burning, fuzzed-out, 27-minute onslaught, <I>Hey Friend, What You Doing?</I> (320kbps MP3; LP, De Stijl IND071). I was shouting with sudden shock and pain.

I was looking out the window. I was waiting for the plane to take off. I was wearing Monster Cable's Beats by Dr. Dre Studio headphones ($349.95). I was listening to Pens' burning, fuzzed-out, 27-minute onslaught, <I>Hey Friend, What You Doing?</I> (320kbps MP3; LP, De Stijl IND071). I was shouting with sudden shock and pain.

I was looking out the window. I was waiting for the plane to take off. I was wearing Monster Cable's Beats by Dr. Dre Studio headphones ($349.95). I was listening to Pens' burning, fuzzed-out, 27-minute onslaught, <I>Hey Friend, What You Doing?</I> (320kbps MP3; LP, De Stijl IND071). I was shouting with sudden shock and pain.

I was looking out the window. I was waiting for the plane to take off. I was wearing Monster Cable's Beats by Dr. Dre Studio headphones ($349.95). I was listening to Pens' burning, fuzzed-out, 27-minute onslaught, <I>Hey Friend, What You Doing?</I> (320kbps MP3; LP, De Stijl IND071). I was shouting with sudden shock and pain.

I was looking out the window. I was waiting for the plane to take off. I was wearing Monster Cable's Beats by Dr. Dre Studio headphones ($349.95). I was listening to Pens' burning, fuzzed-out, 27-minute onslaught, <I>Hey Friend, What You Doing?</I> (320kbps MP3; LP, De Stijl IND071). I was shouting with sudden shock and pain.

“Children by the million sing for Alex Chilton when he comes 'round
They sing "I'm in love. What's that song?
I'm in love with that song."

(from “Alex Chilton” by The Replacements)

My five month old cell phone fried itself dead. Traffic in downtown Austin crawled inch by inch. A friend, who called himself a “capitalist,” called long distance to tell me Obama’s health plan was going to bankrupt the country. But all of that paled in comparison to the strange news that on the first night of South By Southwest 2010, the great Alex Chilton had died just before leaving New Orleans to come to Austin to play a Big Star reunion. Or as the more cynical among us had it, <I>another</I> Big Star reunion.

<i>Almost there. And vodka tonics make lifting easier.</i>

My friend, <a href="http://eloisemoorehead.tumblr.com/">Eloise Moorhead</a>, helped me place the front-wall bookcase on top of the right-wall bookcase, creating a solid stack of vinyl!

For a time, I had my gear sitting on top of my new <a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/the_weight_of_my_loneliness/"… Expedit bookcase</a>. An identical bookcase sat along the front wall and held a ton of books, but proved visually distracting when listening to music; it also weakened my system's soundstaging abilities.

It's difficult to believe that the former top model of Vandersteen Audio's line of loudspeakers, the Model 5, has been in production in one form or another since 1997. Time passes quickly when you're having fun. Like all Vandersteen speakers, the 5 was and remains a good value <I>and</I> performance proposition. For all the 5's high technology and excellent performance both measured and audible, its price now starts at under $20,000/pair (up from about $10,000/pair when the 5 was introduced in 1997), including a built-in, proprietary powered subwoofer in each cabinet, and a sophisticated equalization system for room compensation.