Kind of Blue Barcelona

Kind of Blue Barcelona

Nov 19, 2009

There was fast food like Catalonian baguette pizza with chorizo. Tapas like flash fried baby squid or crispy potatoes with olive oil mayo and tomato sauce. And then of course there was that robber baron Rupert Murdoch and his damnable tabloid <I>The Sun</I> which every morning has a half&#150;naked twentysomething smiling at you from page two! Danni, 23, from Coventry was my personal favorite. Yes, Europe does have its advantages!

And then there was the music, right, right, the music. A mini-theme of the 41st installment of the Barcelona Jazz Festival was the 50th anniversary of <I>Kind of Blue</I>. The idea, and it was an admirable one, was to turn three groups of musicians loose on Miles masterwork and then sit back and enjoy the contrasting approaches. Now that I’m back in the States and have had a few days to contemplate what I saw, it all sort of comes under the heading of: “The Mysterious Ways in Which a Musician’s Mind Works(?).” Or “Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Drummers.”

Nellie McKay does Doris Day

Nellie McKay does Doris Day

Nov 19, 2009

Nellie McKay’s <I>Normal As Blueberry Pie: A Tribute to Doris Day</I> (Verve, CD and LP) is the unlikeliest delight of the year. Who’d have thought that the snarkmistress of <I>Get Away from Me</I> (her 2004 debut double-album, with its “Explicit Lyrics” label, downtown cool, and sharp-wit irony, to say nothing of the title’s savage slash at the then-raging darling, Norah Jones) could produce such gentle covers of hits once sung by the queen of wholesomeness?

Stereophile digital gear testing/measurements procedures

Forums
General Rants 'n' Raves
Submitted by hollowman on

TBOMK, certain tests (jitter) require one to place o-scope (or other test instrument's) probes on IC pins (or ckt traces). Can someone explain how one can do this and not affect the performance of the device. E.g., digital electronics require shielding, so taking the cover off and probing/testing effectively removes some of the shiled.
Also, how do you (Stereophile) probe today's ultra-small ICs (SOP, MSOP size, etc.). "Very carefully" or "We contract out to mosquitos" do not qualify as answers

Minor sorting quirk on Stereophile web site

Forums
General Rants 'n' Raves
Submitted by andy_c on

This is really minor, but the behavior is probably not what the user expects, so I thought I'd mention it. If one is looking at reviews and sorts alphabetically, it appears that the sort is case-sensitive. This can give some odd results. To see this, go to the Stereophile home page, and under "Amplification", click "Solid-State Power Amps". Then, in "Sort By:", click on "Title". At the bottom of the list, click on the number for the last page. You'll see that "darTZeel" and "mbl" come after "Yamaha", because of the case-sensitive sorting - probably not what the user expects.

AKfest 2010

Forums
Manufacturers' Showcase
Submitted by SAS Audio on

May 1-2, 2010 is coming sooner than one thinks and time to make plans to attend. This year the AKfest is situated in Detroit's affluent Novi suburb.

Last year the AKfest grew to some 56 exhibitors who demonstrated their components to over a thousand visitors. It is fast becoming a premier event for the midwest/atlantic areas.

For more information please check out:

http://www.akfest.com/index.html

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