two spiral staircases
going up up up
in opposite directions
one is red,
one is green.
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montreal is:
two spiral staircases
two spiral staircases
a mist this gray morning drops
upon the curves
upon the curves
of cherry valley;
her distant foothills
wear it
like a soft flannel sheet. she
does not stir. i
could watch all day.
The lovely (as you can see) and talented (as anyone who heard her sing and play the flute at the SSI 2010 Give Band concerts can attest) Caroline St-Louis helped out at the show ticket desk. Here she is with her favorite audio magazine.
The Jazz Review was one of the most fascinating journals in the history of music-writing. Its editors were Nat Hentoff and Martin Williams, two of the most insightful critics of its day (the late 1950s and early ’60s). But its main distinction was that it consisted almost entirely of jazz musicians, writing articles and reviews about other jazz musicians.
In retrospect, the issues (which are now available online) contain as much parochialism as wisdom, which is to say they’re a reflection of their times. Art Farmer scolds Ornette Coleman for discarding chord-changes; at the same time,…
One of my favorite moments of SSI 2010 came during Saturday afternoon's outstanding "Ask the Editors" session, when a member of the audience asked the panel about audio nirvana. What components or systems, if any, had helped us achieve that elusive, mythical state when everything is perfect and right? I sat up straight in my seat and buried my fingernails into the palms of my hands, anxious to offer a response. When my turn to answer came, I stuttered, overwhelmed by the moment, but I think I said enough to communicate the idea that audio nirvana is a fleeting target, one that depends…
For a journalist at a trade show, few things are more awkward than entering a room and finding that the exhibitor and his staff are the only people there: No dealers. No customers. Just a few desperate souls ready to pin their last half-hope on a man with a badge—and the badge says Press.
Happily, I had only a few such moments at Salon Son et Image 2010: three, in fact, all on the same, slow trade day. (The trick, by the way, for those who covet the audio reviewer's life of power, riches, and fame, is to answer the begging gaze by fumbling with your cell phone and saying, "Sorry:…
JA struggles while I take a photo: In the back of JA’s Land Cruiser, the Wilson Sasha’s WATT head unit fits perfectly behind its partnering Puppy.
Here we are in Art Dudley’s listening room, preparing to load the Wilson Audio Sasha into the back of John Atkinson’s Land Cruiser. After removing the Sasha’s WATT head unit from its large Puppy woofer cabinet, we carefully tipped the Puppy onto its side, removed the spikes from its bottom plate, installed the dedicated casters in place of those spikes, hoisted the Puppy back into an upright position, and dressed it up in protective Saran-Wrap.
We then rolled the Puppy from Art’s listening room around a corner, into the hall, out the front door, passed a bunny, and onto the porch…
Two Wilson Sasha Puppies and two Wilson Sasha WATTs, wrapped up and nestled into a Land Cruiser, ready for the long drive from Art Dudley’s Cherry Valley farm to John Atkinson’s Bay Ridge castle.
At about 12:30 on Sunday afternoon, we said goodbye to the beautiful blue-haired girls, Michel Plante, Sarah Tremblay, and all of the smiling faces at Salon Son & Image. It had been a wonderful show, but now it was time to move on to other things. We piled into the Land Cruiser, John Atkinson in the driver’s seat, Art Dudley riding shotgun, and me in the back. I spent much of the…
A gift from Uncle Art: Introduced in 1962, the Denon DL-103 moving-coil cartridge ($229)—a music-lover’s friend, an audiophile classic, a man’s cartridge.
All the cool guys have one. At least one. Really cool dudes have like three or four. Sometimes, you even meet a girl who uses a Denon DL-103, but she is invariably extremely hot. Her name is Charlie or Ingrid or Scarlett, or some crazy shit like that. She owns more records than you do. She’ll eventually want to move your furniture. If you’re smart, you’ll let her. And when you’re done moving furniture, you…