"My biggest gripe is that Bayard’s conception of reading is entirely social—a way to rack up points at cocktail parties. At the risk of sounding like the fusty old crank everyone does impressions of in the faculty lounge, I still believe in the private ecstasy of reading. It’s one thing to jockey for social position by saying that Dostoyevsky introduced psychology into the novel, or that Chaucer had a fuller grasp of humanity than Shakespeare. It’s another thing to experience, with your…
search
Sam Anderson knows exactly how to talk about a book called How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read.
Greg Stepanich ponders the 25th anniversary of Glenn Gould's death, commenting that "1982 was an unpropitious year to die for a man who found such a great creative outlet in technology."
Audiophiles well know the glories of a 12-inch slab of 180-gram virgin vinyl cut for 45-rpm playback. Compared with a normal LP’s 33-1/3 revolutions per minute, the grooves on a 45 are stretched out over a wider space, allowing the stylus to track them more accurately and to give voice to the music’s minutest details. The non-‘philes among you may be shaking your heads (Oh, no, Is this guy a nutball?) but, believe me, it’s true. A few years back, Classic Records, Mike Hobson’s L.A.-based audiophile label, put out a series of limited-edition single-sided 45 rpm LPs, one album stretched out on…
And Huck will stare at you for hours attempting to convince you it's kibble time.
I've written before about my immense regard for Garry Trudeau's The Sandbox milblog. Today, Owen Powell (aka SGT Roy Batty) posts about his experiences in DC promoting the book Dunesbury.com's The Sandbox, visiting the Pentagon, the Vietnam memorial, and Walter Reed Hospital.
It's humbling to this "professional writer" just how powerfully Powell writes. As John Atkinson likes to deadpan, it all comes down to having something to say and saying it. Most of us barely clear out throats, Powell, by God, says it. Bravo.
Dr. Lajos Nagy offers cosmetic surgery that shapes your pinnae to points. Why? I'll let the good doctor tell you.
"Pointed ears focus sounds in a better way, which, in the case of animals, is supplemented by the fact that they can orientate themselves towards the source of sounds without turning their heads, by moving only their ears.
"The other reason is the own frequency of the pinnae, as being solid objects themselves, which changes together with their shape. Pointed ears resonate with sounds at the frequency of around 8 kHz, thus they amplify sharp sounds instead of the…
I was visited yesterday by Steve Krampf, CEO of Chestnut Hill Sound and designer of the George sound system. As we walked from our 6th floor lobby down the long hall to my office, the conversation somehow turned to various loudspeaker drivers. (That's just something that happens when you're in our office.)
"Are you an audiophile?" I asked seriously.
"I'd say I'm more of an anti-audiophile," he replied.
"An anti-audiophile?" I asked seriously.
"I guess that's enough to get me kicked out of here," he replied.
"Well, that depends on what you mean by anti-…
Good news! You're going to die—want to find out when?
Yikes. I have 32 years left. (Interestingly, attitude counts more than BMI, if you fiddle with the input.)
Hat tip to Mike's Web Log.