search

Things Come Together

Also, I made one other change when I removed the Ayre gear from my system: I switched from the Ayre&#150supplied and &#150spec'd Cardas cables to Furutech Evolutions. Incidentally, it was right around this same time that I read Jay Rein's essay on system synergy.

I had already been using a Furutech e-TP609 power distributor and Evolution power cord. These accessories have been quiet constants.

You might remember that when I reintroduced the Musical Fidelity gear to my system, I heard a dramatic change in the overall sound. It was a change that I preferred.…

Water, water, everywhere

Rumor is that the suits at MTV are beginning to kvetch about the expense of having bottled water delivered to the NYC offices of the network. Man, when the bottled water bill gets up on the bean counter radar nothing good can come of it.

Talking to Amy Lombardi who is a friend who also works in the music business, as opposed to just another business associate, she mentioned that Neko Case's new record, Fox Confessor Brings The Flood has Sound Scanned over 100,000 units in the U.S. alone. Good for Neko.

What's a Meta For?

Metaphors help us understand the universe, but what if they're really helping us get it wrong?

"You Always Get a Subway Seat. . ."

"When you're carrying a book with the big fat title Embalming." Lisa Takeuchi Cullen has written a gentle update to The American Way of Death. Putting aside her statement that "death is a big, huge bummer," it sounds interesting.

The Paping Soapbox Derby

C'mon, 'fess up—don't you wish you lived in Brooklyn?

Oregon Judge Rules Fixed Gear Bicycles Illegal

Fixed gear bikes, in case you don't know, have no freewheel, which means that if the rear wheel is turning, you're peddling. There's no coasting on a fixie—and braking is a matter of leg power.

You almost never see an inexperienced cyclist on a fixie, they're more the province of bike messengers and other hard-core wheelmen. I wanted to buy one, but Verrazano Bicycles' owner Tom Kim refused to sell me one, sagely predicting, "At your age, you'll blow a knee and be off a bike for six months and be miserable." Oh how I love to hear those words "at your age."

But I digress, my point…

Sealed With A Union Jack

I haven't listened yet, but I'm already happy. I'm fighting the urge to just set the stuff up right here, right now, in my office.

The Exposure 2010S integrated amp and CD player arrived today! And you know how it is when packages arrive in the mail. A guy gets so used to receiving nothing but collection notices and dreary bank statements, that whenever anything else at all shows up on the hallway banister, it's like Christmas during a New York City heat wave. Even if it's only a card, it's enough to get you all giddy with "For me?" and "WTF is this?"

So, when…

Gecko Gloves

Having wormed my way up miles of static rope with Gibbs and Petzl Frog ascenders, my biggest desire is to do away with the rope itself. I wants me a set of Gecko gloves and booties!

Oh My God, They've Killed Mel

Holy Molars Batman, South Park has been outdone by so-called real life! Say it ain't so!

Ya gotta hand it to Mel Gibson though. I mean he managed to stifle his deep-seated alcohol-triggered anti-Semitic rage until there was actual fighting again between Israel and one of its many foes.

Still, I'm haunted by the nearly naked, Braveheart face-painted Gibson, who bounced around the 2004 episode The Passion of the Jewhooting like Daffy Duck, and acting nuts as hell which…ahhh, we all now know, thanks to his ranting ("sugar tits"? Oh Mel) to actually be true. I'm sure that being raised…

This Is Not My Jetpack

But the Ace Craft Gen H-4 personal helicopter is pretty darn cool. If you have a Y chromosome, I bet you want one, too.