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Terry Pratchett: "I'm Not Dead"

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: 1931–2007

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…

Heavenly Bodies

Satellites, it turns out, are more diverse (read: weirder) than the planets they orbit.

Finally, at JA's

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…

This Rush to Make the Future Happen

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,…

Man, the Tool Using Animal

As the son of a hardware store owner, I'd call us men, the tool hoarding animals. According to a recent archeological find in Jordan, not much has changed in 14,000 years.

When I first began exploring ethnomusicology, I found the music strange until I learned that young men in Pygmy culture sang songs to attract girls and that single campesinos in Peru could not engage in courtship dances if they didn't play the charango. I was in a band to pick up girls, so I felt an immense kinship with my African and Andean brethren.

Somehow, knowing my Natufian ancestor had a toolbag makes him…

Dedication

Huckleberry keeps his kitty velcro very sharp.

Come In, Rangoon!

Bagheera likes the R601W Tube Hi-Fi FM/AM Classic Radio. What's not to like? It's tubed, has a walnut cabinet, and she looks good on it.

This Is Just So Wrong

Holosonics is called the "audio spotlight" because it can project sound directly into your head, claiming that it is inaudible just a step away.

So of course, it's being used in outdoor advertising here in New York. Innocent pedestrians (well, innocent by New York standards) are assaulted by a bodiless voice murmuring "Who's that? Who's there?" It is then followed by: "It's not your imagination!"

I have two reactions to this: 1) Shades of Philip K. Dick, and 2) How stupid do you have to be to put additional voices inside the heads of already stressed-out NY pedestrians?

…

Affordable?

Way back when, I mentioned that I'd discovered Tangent Audio while working on the 2007 Buyer's Guide. Initially, I was attracted to the Tangent gear because of the affordable prices. Later, that attraction grew. First because I'd seen how handsome the gear was, and then because Richard Kolhruss, Tangent's US distributor, sold me on the company's attention to detail. I was intrigued, and wondered if I'd wandered into something special and new.

Richard and I discussed the possibility of securing a couple of review samples. Time passed. Seasons changed, and so on.

…