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Jessica Duchen says, "Christmas is coming, decisions are being made over whether to splash out on an organic turkey, and Handel's Messiah is being reheated for its annual outings. With its stirring choruses and memorable melodies, it's no wonder that Messiah is still everyone's seasonal favourite, especially when performed in a style allegedly appropriate to the mid-18th century. But just as consumers of supposedly organic food can be misled, so music-lovers, dazzled by displays of "superior" knowledge, often swallow assurances that they're hearing a historically correct performance when they…
As CES approaches, the e-mails and phone calls pour in. Though the temperature here in New York City remains in the mid-fifties, we're snowed under by invites to dinners, demos, and other assorted press events. We mark our calendars, make reservations, create itineraries. As it continues, I wish that all the talk and preparation would come to a sudden end. I wish we were there already, in Vegas, listening to music.
My favorite part of preparing for CES is creating a demo disc. Each year, Jon Iverson, Wes Phillips, and I trade discs, taking some pleasure in sharing the music we…
My problem with the Swiss Army Knife has always been that it was a pretty lousy knife—the steel used for blades was hard to sharpen and easy to dull. Back when you could still carry a knife when you traveled, I would carry the Tourist, which had a bottle opener, corkscrew, tweezers, toothpick, Phillips and flathead screwdrivers, and two useless blades.
I carried a Opinel ringlock knife for actually cutting things, like sausages. I'd say that when you actually have to carry an extra knife to do the stuff that a knife is supposed to do, a company ought to call its product something else.
Here, wash out your ears with "The Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy."
Patty really gets her scat on. Yowsuh!
JA sends along this 2003 Blender article, urging everyone to take the test at the end.
Is it just me, or have the last three years given us a bumper crop of new candidates for this list, such as the artists whose names rhyme with Whitney Beers and Baris Bilton?
Over at Rifftides, Doug Ramsey has a lovely recollection of the Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter and her Bentley S1.
Jazz fans will recognize the Baroness as one of the great patrons of the NY jazz scene in the '50s and '60s, not to mention the inspiration for "Pannonica" and "Nica's Dream."
Well, I knew, of course. But, in addition to all sorts of great and suite-clearing music, CES (and the renegade T.H.E. Show) will be an absolute explosion of new audio gear and gadgetry. How do I know? I know because I've got the press releases that say so. They keep coming and coming. I've got an Outlook folder dedicated to them. Why don't I share those releases with you?
While we think about which songs to take along with us, let's also create a list of manufacturers we'd most like to visit.
I've already mentioned DeVore Fidelity, who'll be displaying their new…