It's true that the cost per disc of manufacturing is well under a buck, but there are lots of other expenses that add up to make that disc so expensive—especially for small labels, such as John Marks or John Atkinson's efforts. Yes, labels with acts like Madonna or the dreaded Britney Spears can make…
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One of the most common complaints we see when writing about consumer dissatisfaction with CDs is "price gouging" by greedy corporations. Several Stereophile readers have written that they"know" CDs only cost pennies to make, so $16.98 is a rip-off for a product that should sell for under $10.
Yahoo reports on the "tongue port," which sort of combines elements on the space-commando neural switching technology from The Stars My Destination with Chip Delany's direct neural jacks from Babel 17 and other early work. Cool—and kind of scary.
Walking Down Rainhill
Hitchhike Records
Hitchhike Records
Although this is not his latest disc, musically I like this one better than the new one. Jake Shimabukuro is the Django Reinhardt of the Ukulele (pronounced ooo-koo-lay-lay, not yew-ka-lay-lee), and is an incredible musician, regardless of how some regard his chosen axe. There is some forgettable jazz-lite here, but the solid tracks, like opener "Heartbeat" and his take on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", more than compensate.
The songs were multi-tracked in a studio in Hawaii, with Shimabukuro often building up layers of uke…
Are the brains of animals hard-wired to detect the footfalls (or wingflaps) of predators? Dr. Cord Westhoff thinks so.
Starting this blog has made me feel almost the same way I did when Frank Sinatra died and I wrote in the pages of Stereophile that when I became a music writer, lo those many dark-haired days ago, I knew that someday I'd have to write a Francis Albert obit. When the blog craze first began to gallop, I knew intuitively that someday, I too would be sucked into the immediacy maw and be lured into venting my opinions, valuable or not, in the blogosphere.
What the hell do I plan to say? In my everyday life here in the seething Apple, I end up running my mouth, ah, I mean interacting, on the…
It's hard for me to believe that all of today's sunshine will soon be replaced by clouds and rain. Then again, there's no reason to trust in whimsical April. The forecast calls for the sky to fall at about 6pm EST. Right now, at 4:55pm EST, the tall, brick buildings outside my window are blanketed in golden warmth. I'm usually not so in touch with the weather's hourly report, but there's a special circumstance keeping me curious.
And then: We're working on so much. Every day there's something new. This afternoon has handcuffed us with IRMA forms and shipping labels. Elizabeth is…
Mark Fleischmann sends us a cautionary link that argues that our immersion in the technological soup of bleeps, blips, and scattershot images is changing us from critters who think in words to ones that utilize pictures.
As thought provoking as the article is, I found the comments even more interesting.
Here's a sobering story about computer buying. [H] Consumer went to Best Buy, Circuit City, CompUSA, and Fry's Electronics to buy a computer and simply tells us what happened. The money quote: "Most retail sales people are simply not going to possess the necessary knowledge to correctly recommend or explain every nuance of a piece of hardware. Even if a sales rep has all that down, a greater skill is required from them: relating that 64-bit-Lightscribe-GeForce knowledge in a non-condescending, helpful way to someone who is unsure what his hardware needs even are. The potent combo of techie…
No dogs or philosophers allowed. Yes, they're ads, but they're very funny ads.
Locust Street is exploring 1956. Yesterday's post actually manages to connect Stockhausen to Clarence "Frogman" Henry. True, it's a chronological connection, but I guarantee that nobody will contrive an odder coupling in 2006. Great site, worth a regular visit.