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The Audiophile of Solitude

The process behind yesterday's entry also led me to an old essay by Art Dudley. "Academy? What Academy?!" is special because it was AD's first piece published in Stereophile. Beyond that, and like all of Art's writing, it is special also because of the message it contains. While, on the surface, it's something of a deathblow to what was The Academy Advancing High Performance Audio and Video (what a crappy name!), there is a more important message, one that is just as relevant today as it was when the article was written, nearly ten years ago.

Art gives us his own…

Haydn and Mozart and Schubert, Oh My!

We attended the New York Philharmonic Saturday, and, if the classical record industry is in trouble, classical music is still vibrantly alive. Ionarts gets it precisely right, Saturday's concert was about as balanced a program as I've ever heard and it was a meeting of equals.

Sir Colin Davis cannot possibly be 80! He was a marvel to watch, as he coaxed color and precision out of the Phil—and the post-Masur NYP is a remarkable orchestra. It has the lush ensemble sound of Ormandy's Philadelphia band and the precision of the Reiner era CSO. It has come a long way from the late '80s doldrums…

Would You Like Some Grue With That?

The story behind The Raft of the Medusa. Like the painting, it isn't pretty, but you can't look away.

Human/Sheep Chimera Created in Laboratory

As a sci-fi fan, I can assure you that this never ends well.

The Ampitheater As Acoustic Filter

Why theater goers in Epidaurus could hear actors from 60m away.

Confetti

Dear Stephen,

Your shipment is now on its way to you via FedEx Ground. While Kelli was carefully hand-packing your shipment, we all sang a song of farewell and blew confetti about the warehouse. Then we packed your speakers on the truck, snapped to a smart salute and sent them on their way.

If any confetti remains on your box, please dispose of it carefully. One can never fully trust confetti.

Your new Aperion Audio speakers have seen much in their travels. Now they're ready to take you on cinematic and audio adventures of your own. Treat them well, love them, and they…

The Violence of the Lambs

I told you baaaad things happened when you monkey around with sheep.

Traneumentary

If, when listening to the music of John Coltrane, you've been asking yourself what am I missing?, Traneumentary will give you answers. It's a podcast series that interleaves commentary and Coltrane's music with interviews with collaborators like McCoy Tyner and Jimmy Cobb, contemporary musicians like Terence Blanchard and Jason Moran, and legendary producers Michael Cuscuna and Joel Dorn—not to mention the great man himself.

They call me caboose because I always follow the 'Trane.

Via be.jazz.

Happy Birthday Slava!

To celebrate his 80th birthday, EMI is loading all of Mstislav Rostropovich's discography onto iTunes for download. That's 5000 tracks.

I think that's great, but I don't know what bugs me more—that they're only available as DRM-encrusted lo-rez files or that we're still talking about "tracks." Grumble, mumble, sigh.

Yet Another Reality-Based Review of <I>300</I>

It's funny, but one of the topics Jeff Wong and I have been discussing, seemingly on a daily basis, has been the endless barrage of negative reviews of 300. I have my misgivings—principally the film's depiction of Hoplite warfare that completely ignores the existence of hoplon armor or Hoplite tactics.

Eugene N. Borza's review in Archeology gets that 300 is fiction, not simply sloppy. Yet, some inaccuracies are still hard to stomach. One, obviously, was having the Spartans march south to Themopylae, which is north of Sparta—shades of The Green Berets, which ends with the sun setting in…