I sat in the backseat of Kimberly Holland's pale gray car. Honestly, I can't remember the make or model. I can't even remember whether it had four doors or two, and this bothers me, but I do believe it was pale gray. In the passenger seat, Stephanie Roof was surely wearing her sparkling, white sunglasses with the enormous plastic frames. Kim was in love with me and I was in love with…
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...And I was returned to those weird and warm Florida nights when I'd leap eagerly from my comfortable but lonely bedroom at the sound of a weak car horn. In moments, I'd be out and free.
Does the Western 12-tone scale represent every tone possibility? Oh, grasshopper, you have so much to learn.
I loved the first six volumes of Tales of the City, although the recently published Michael Tolliver Lives sounds pretty dire. Still, few writers have ever written more lovingly about the city by the bay.
Neil Gaiman argues that the science fiction novels of H.G. Wells, while fine, pale compared to his short stories. Gaiman says that the SF stories survive, while "many of the mainstream novels he considered more important and significant are gone and, for the most part, forgotten, perhaps because the novels were very much of their time."
Perhaps. But they may be due for reconsideration. While trekking in Bolivia, I came upon a copy of Wells' all but forgotten The History of Mr. Polly, which was a revelation. Fiercely funny, keenly observed, and delightfully gentle, it charmed me precisely…
"A stinking, rat-infested cesspit that would never be tolerated now." And your point is . . . ?
Living In Stereo argues that, far from being the best Beatles album SPLHCB was the worst . . . least best . . . um, not greatest non-soundtrack album.
"The same acoustic silence, embedded in two different excerpts, can be perceived dramatically differently," writes Elizabeth Hellmuth Margulis in an article in the June issue of Music Perception.
A few things contributed:
First, I was awfully impressed by some truly affordable components that seemed, to me, to offer truly hi-end sound: The PSB Alpha B1 loudspeakers, then the Aperion Audio Intimus 532 loudspeakers, and finally the Trends TA-10.1 amplifier. These are only a few. I know there are so many more out there. My experience with these particular pieces, along with my newfound enthusiasm for listening to music through an iPod and Shure SE310 in-ear headphones, got me very excited for the possibility of bringing high-end hi-fi to a younger crowd. I talked about it, and…