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You Have Been Poked by Jim Thiel

"So what are you doing this Friday?" my father asked, trying to elicit information I could tell he already knew.

"Hmmm. Oh, I'm playing a gig." I responded, calmly.

"I know."

Ha! I knew he knew.

He continued, "Why didn't you invite me?" (He was referring to me not sending him a Facebook invitation for my gig, which I did send to more than 120 others.)

"Because you are not in New York, so it seemed illogical." (He's in Birmingham, Alabama.)

"Well don't worry. I don't go to things I'm not invited to."

This tiff divulged into a two-day…

Remember/Imagine

John Lennon left the planet 28 years ago today. I have a hard time contemplating that without tearing up.

It's not that I wanted to meet him, or hang out with him, or imagined that we could have been BFFs. I simply liked living in a world with John Lennon in it—a world where a song like "Norwegian Wood" could change everything simply by being played on AM radio. . . A world where the brutal honesty of "Working Class Hero" could revolutionize my conception of what or how much a "pop" song could say. . . Even a world where the two most famous songwriters on earth could carry on a bitter…

Check's in the Mail

The new high gloss, high performance Rega P3-24 turntable complete with TT-PSU power supply (sold as an option with standard finish P3s) is now available. The updated P3 was a big winner in our Products of the Year celebration, taking home awards for both Analog Source of the Year and Budget Component of the Year.

I put a check in the mail this afternoon. Weeeeeeeeee.

Deep Listening: The Video

Well, I wasn't able to attend Saturday's "Deep Listening" discussion at the Philoctetes Center. A plane to Mexico was missed and I wound up drinking exotic beers and helping newlyweds plan their honeymoon. Long story.

However, the entire two-hour "Deep Listening" event, with our wild-haired analog guru Michael Fremer, can be viewed right here.

It's a fun watch, complete with a Thelma & Louise reference and ample sex talk. No, really: It's all about the emotional connection to music, and it's an excellent discussion, whether you're new to hi-fi or a lifelong…

In My Notebook

She wrote your name down in my notebook and circled it and drew a bunch of funny pictures of cats.

A Picture of Something

She had short brown hair, brown eyes, and wore a brown bomber and a blue and green checked ivy cap. Every ten minutes, we'd have to stop so she could take a picture of something.

<i>Dark End of the Street</i>

It was November 1999, in New Orleans. I had been on the road for almost a month, traveling on my own aboard Amtrak trains. I had a rail pass that allowed me to get on and off wherever I pleased. That freedom was great, but I became terribly lonely. Part of the deal was I had to make at least two stops in Canada. So, I went from New York City to Rochester to Niagara Falls and then up to Montreal, Quebec City, Ottawa, and Toronto. All the while reading crazy shit like Pauline Reage's Story of O or Henry Miller's Quiet Days in Clichy, meeting beautiful people, falling in love with…

The Time is Now!

One night last week, a bout of channel surfing brought me to the Grammy nomination concert. Not the Grammys mind you, that’s in February, but a televised special to announce the nominations. And only the nominations of the celebrity—driven stuff like Best New Artist which is when LL Cool J, who was hosting, walked across the front of the auditorium and ask the Jonas Brothers how it felt to be nominated. As the bile rose in my throat I changed the channel. I found it to be very strange that this was proceeded by a showing of the venerable 1964 stop motion animation special, Rudolph,…

The ARChive Record Sale

Though it seemed to have been fairly well-scavenged by the time we arrived on Saturday afternoon, the ARChive of Contemporary Music's Winter Record and CD Sale held many great treasures.

Many records were in the $2-$5 range, with hundreds and hundreds of others for just a buck. Classic rock, new wave, punk, country, blues, jazz, Latin, and African genres were all represented. Multiple copies of most titles were available, so if you happened to be shopping with a couple of buddies, there'd be no need to arm wrestle for that last copy of Born To Run. Classical music lovers may…

Big Top Hi-fi, or: Hi-fi Takes Manhattan

I was flipping through the current issue of Rolling Stone (RS 1068/1069, with a mustachioed Brad Pitt on the cover) and stopped at their "Rock & Roll Gift Guide."

Included alongside the cell phones and box sets were a few choice hi-fi pieces. Real hi-fi. The editors over at 1290 Avenue of the Americas selected the Debut III turntable (reviewed by Michael Fremer in our Vol.29 No.7), Sonos WiFi music system, and an Audioengine 5 / Wadia 170 iTransport combo. Excellent picks, guys!

These are four examples of perfectionist hi-fi products that have crossed over into the…