Warped Vinyl

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The Entry Level
Submitted by woolygoat on

I'm a newbie here and have been purchasing most of my vinyl new online. I've run into the problem of a couple of lps being slightly warped. Not horribly warped, just along the perimeter that it is occasionally audible. Is this to be expected of vinyl in general? or is it grounds to send it back to the retailer and request a replacement? Is there any easy way to flatten vinyl?

Ran Blake's Driftwoods

Ran Blake's Driftwoods

Feb 28, 2009

Among the many compelling jazz pianists still around, Ran Blake may be the oddest (and the most unjustly, though understandably, obscure). He can’t swing for more than a few bars; he tends to change keys at random intervals; for this reason, he usually plays solo, figuring that few musicians have the patience for his quirks (though some of his best albums—<I>The Short Life of Barbara Monk</I>, <I>Suffield Gothic</I>, <I>That Certain Feeling</I>, and <I>Masters from Different Worlds</I>—were collaborative efforts, involving such established artists as Steve Lacy, Clifford Jordan, and Houston Person). Yet there’s magic in Blake’s music; his chords, dissonant but heartfelt, seem to waft out of a dream. Now in his 70s, a longtime teacher at the New England Conservatory, Blake has called himself a filmmaker who doesn’t know how to hold a camera, and his albums all have a cinematic flavor. (Many years ago, he recorded the soundtrack of Hitchcock’s <I>Vertigo</I> and told me afterward that he could see scenes of the film in his head while he was playing.) Even when not playing movie themes, his songs possess a narrative impulse; he’s a very instinctive pianist (by his own admission, he’s not a strong sight-reader), and he seems to have some weird synaptic nerve that translates images in his brain to chords and intervals in his fingers.

Tolliver & Moran Do Monk at Town Hall, Part 2 (The Aftermath)

Tolliver & Moran Do Monk at Town Hall, Part 2 (The Aftermath)

Feb 28, 2009

The “Monk at Town Hall” tribute-concerts on Thursday and Friday night (which I previewed in my last blog) were as riveting as I’d expected—in the case of Charles Tolliver’s re-creation of Monk’s 1959 concert, much more so. Tolliver transcribed the original concert off the Monk LP, assembled a top-notch 10-piece band to play the parts, and conducted the score with precision except to let the hornmen improvise their solos. It’s a risky enterprise to invite comparison to a classic (cf. Gus Van Sant’s shot-by-shot remake of <I>Psycho</I>), but Tolliver roared into the ring and more than held his own. It wasn’t quite the marvel of the original—nobody can do all the things Monk did on the piano, and Tolliver’s drummer held back too much (Monk’s drummer, Art Taylor, splashed around the trap set, heightening the tension and release)—but it came very close. Stanley Cowell shadowed Monk’s piano runs with startling fidelity. Rufus Reid plucked the bassline with authority and soul. Several of the soloists rocked the full house—especially Howard Johnson on bari sax, Aaron Johnson on tuba, and the young Marcus Strickland on tenor sax, who outdid Charlie Rouse for sheer verve. The whole band plowed through these absurdly difficult tunes with crackling aplomb, swinging like crazy, as Monk might have said.

high end cars

Submitted by deacongreg on

Besides loving music, and the equipment that reproduces it, I`m a fan of exotics. My favorite for years was the Lamborghini Gallardo. There is nothing that looks so futurustic, sleek, and sexy. But now, I love The Audi R8. Mean stance, awesome performance, and for this type of car, fairly reasonable in price.
Who else out there shares this feeling?

Warning: Selling hi-fi equipment online

Forums
General Rants 'n' Raves
Submitted by rmeyer52 on

I have used a site called Audiogon to sell hi-fi equipment but this week I had a really bad experience that I would like to share/warn users about. I listed my Marantz CD player which is less than a month old on the site for $285 and rejected an offer to sell to someone for $220. After I rejected his offer he started to send me eMail with gutter language and threats that I can only say indicate that he is a disturbed person. I contacted Audiogon but because these eMails were sent to me they said there is nothing they can do.

Troops Retreating From New Orleans

Submitted by Lamont Sanford on

Guard to pull out of New Orleans after 3 1/2 years

http://apnews.myway.com//article/20090228/D96KA96O1.html

The insurgency in New Orleans after the great Katrina attack has resulted in a complete failure. Government unable to restore order in homeland. Troops being pulled out. New Orleans left to take of itself. Violence and crime continue. Infrastructure and workers left unprotected.

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