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"Cavalcade of merciless repetition," is how Jimmy Page described touring in the Sunday Times last week. I still say they're gonna tour but give them credit: they're being coy about being dragged into accepting all that cash.
When I realized that I knew most of WGUC's Top Classical CDs of 2007, I had to stop and wonder: "What the heck is going on with me?"
It was only somewhat comforting to read that these discs represent "a new generation of instrumentalists, singers, and conductors"—it's not your grandpappy's classical. I'm not over the hill, yet.
Most important, however, is the fact that Number 9 on this impressive list is Cantus' new eponymous disc—engineered, edited, mixed, and mastered by our man, John Atkinson.
I have to say that this is my very favorite…
The inspiration for Dylan's "Ballad of a Thin Man" died in November.
Jeffrey Owen Jones was a father, scholar, college dean, Emmy Award winner, and magazine editor—all of which managed to fit into one paragraph of his obituary. But let the poet laureate of his generation write one nasty song about your cluelessness and that they'll remember.
Jones seemed to take it well. "'I was thrilled—in the tainted way I suppose a felon is thrilled to see his name in the newspaper,' Jones wrote in a story for Rolling Stone magazine some years later. 'I was awed too that Dylan had so accurately…
"Jack" Cappon has died. If you're a writer, you'll probably know him as the author of one of the best books ever written on how to write good: The Word: An Associated Press Guide to Good News Writing.
How good was it? Shawn Moynihan offers an appreciation.
Over at CJR, Nicholas Lemann ponders the limits of clear language, going back to George Orwell's classic "Politics and the English Language." Lemann doesn't quite worship at the altar of "P&TEL," however: He applauds it, but points out it was a rush job—one of 100 articles Orwell published in 1946.
Well, that's the…
That, unfortunately, is the good news at Discworld News. Pratchett announces that he has been diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's.
"Folks,
"I would have liked to keep this one quiet for a little while, but because of upcoming conventions and of course the need to keep my publishers informed, it seems to me unfair to withhold the news. I have been diagnosed with a very rare form of early onset Alzheimer's, which lay behind this year's phantom 'stroke.'
"We are taking it fairly philosophically down here and possibly with a mild optimism. For now work is continuing on…
Ike Turner, who was either born Izear Luster Turner, Jr. or Ike Wister Turner, has died a 76. He's probably best known today for having been the discoverer, husband, and serial abuser—by her account—of Tina Turner, from whom he was divorced in the mid-'70s.
I don't mean to excuse Turner for raising his hand to his wife. After all, even while denying that he was a monster, he did confess to having struck her and cocaine was frequently involved, which means that he might not have been the best judge of his own actions.
However unadmirable he might have been, he was a giant in…
Satellites, it turns out, are more diverse (read: weirder) than the planets they orbit.
Finally, at JA's, you'll have a cup of coffee and sit down to listen to some music before packing up the big and beautiful 200-lb speakers. The freight service is scheduled to arrive in just a couple of hours, so you don't have much time. The speakers had sounded so good that JA just couldn't bear to pack them up any sooner. In fact, they may have been the very best speakers JA's ever heard in his room.
You listen.
It's no wonder JA had waited so long. After only a few moments, you'll start to giggle and blush with disbelief and enthusiasm, in awe of what you're hearing. At…
Fourteen years ago this week, when I was 16 years old and spending all my spare time memorizing the lyrics to Ini Kamoze's "Here Comes the Hotstepper," John Atkinson was busy penning this "As We See It" essay.
Apparently, JA invented the Internets. Who knew?
Also, he's some sort of oracle:
I suspect, therefore, that quality will be forgotten in this rush to make the future happen. Will new generations, overloaded with information and brought up on a diet of data-reduced audio and MPEG-compressed video, even care about sound quality?
Yikes.
Perhaps,…