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In a Personal and Emotive Fashion

Besides dumpsters and dust, IN New York magazine left us with some profound silence. We spent much of the morning admiring it. Today, the ninth floor of 261 Madison Avenue, which can comfortably accommodate nearly 100 dedicated employees, saw only seven.

When we weren't admiring the silence, we were admiring the job done by contributing editor, Jason Victor Serinus, in covering the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest. One reader commented:

Not only has he reported on the "facts" of all these rooms, but has communicated his reaction to the sounds and music he heard in a personal and…

<I>Doonebury's War</I>

I think Gene Weingarten may be the best long-form newspaper writer in the country and this profile of Doonesbury artist-writer Garry Trudeau is Exhibit A.

Oh, you haven't paid attention to Doonesbury in years? Well, the current strips featuring amputee veteran B.D. are some of the sharpest observations you're likely to see on any page of the newspaper.

May require registration, but, man, is it worth it.

Animated Knots

It's knots! With animation!

A seriously cool resource.

You Big Baby!

Michael Bywater thinks he knows what your problem is.

Best and Worst Lines in Film

Much too short a list, but it's a start.

Nominations?

The Only Good Thing to Happen Today

JA, with one of Elizabeth's Orange Drop cookies in his mouth:

I must admit, I'm so nave, on the way to work this morning, I saw some graffiti that said

BUSH SUCKS

and I thought it was referring to the President.

Jingle Bells

Over on our eCommerce page, you can now purchase gift certificates. Give as little as $10, and as much as you want. There's no limit to the giving. You know there's that audiophile friend of yours who's wanted that $600 set of every back issue we have in stock.

Now's the time.

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Dear Readers,
Do you have any ideas for new Stereophile merchandise? T-shirts, tote bags, CD holders, chili peppers, punk rock pins, guitar pics, 45 RPM adapters, pocket knives, lighters, bottle openers? Anything? Please let us know.

Have You Ever Heard Robert Johnson?

Possibly not, according to John Gibbens. He says the records we all know (and many of us worship) have always been played at the wrong speed.

I find his evidence persuasive. It's partially based on the technical difficulties posed by playing slide as high on the neck as would be necessary at those pitches, partially based on the single photograph we have of Johnson holding a guitar, influenced by how much shorter Johnson's recordings are than those of other Delta blues singers, and convincingly based on the results of slowing down the recordings by three semitones.

Pitch-shifted,…

Punctuation That Will Not Be Used Here

Kee-rist—an irony mark? BMAFG!

Lady Chairs and Fortune Lamps

On the autumn-colored PATH train, I admire a trio of wonderfully-dressed French tourists, cameras and messenger bags slung around casual shoulders and thick black scarves wrapped around chilly necks. All three own brilliantly long and messy hair. The two men keep disheveled beards. Their eyes sparkle with the excitement of the unfamiliar. Watching them, I think of my sweetheart and me, under some foreign ground, stuffing colorful bills into a slow and stubborn slot, attempting to board the Metro. And where would we go?

It's funny how a morning's commute to work is…