Today Kurt Cobain would have been 40. Seems like yesterday when we were seeing that searing image of his suicide: the photo taken in the room where he died, of his Converse All Stars, still on his feet, sticking out from behind a piece of furniture.
While it was probably inevitable, ever see Kurt and Courtney?, it was still a waste. What an act they were. "Breed" gets my vote as their best tune.
While we listen to music, the areas of your brain that enable our bodies to move are active, even if we're not. The brain, it seems, likes rhythm.
Carl Zimmer gives us the straight, er, poop on tapeworms.
Conductor Kenneth Woods has some thoughts about "honest" recordings. Follow the link to the University of Houston's listserv for a surprising revelation about another widespread classical hoax.
Ben Yagoda on meh, awwa, feh, heh, and all those other interjections. How could he leave out d'oh!?
How anyone was surprised that Britney Spears has shaved her head is beyond me. As Stereophile's assistant editor, the intrepid Stephen Mejias reminded me, she was brainwashed as a toddler thanks to that malevolent mindfuck known as The Mickey Mouse Club. Add to that she's a piece of unreconstructed white trash from Louisiana, who's now been coddled beyond all description and suddenly head shaving looks like the least of her worries.
But hey, not all young stars are cut of the same useless bimbo cloth. New Yorker Scarlett Johansson, who yes, could probably compel me to wear a dog collar…
Hi ______.
Just as you thought, we'd like to come up with a snazzy catch-phrase to go along with the new Stereophile t-shirt design. Some ideas:
Man. Machine. Music.
The Art of Listening
Power Up the Hi-Fi
Passionate Listening
A Tradition of High-Fidelity
For the High-Fidelity Stereo Perfectionist
Highly Recommended
Go Hi-Fi
Feel the Music
Class A Sound
Jump Factor
Truth and Beauty
Passion, Truth, and Beauty
Oh, and JA offers:
"Women will sleep with you and their toes will curl if you wear this t-shirt."
I'm…
. . . To a pianist with small hands.
Via Ray Kimber.
A website devoted to exotic (mostly) turntables. Two thoughts struck me: I've actually seen or heard most of these, and I bet if I issued audiophile "baseball cards" I could make a mint.
Seriously. high-quality product photography on the front and specs on the back? I'd buy those.
Gizmodo's Mark Wilson does a different Blu-ray vs HD DVD comparison. That is, for my kind of difference: audio quality and extras.
"Blu-ray may easily accommodate uncompressed audio with its larger disc capacity, compensating for its lack of special features. Meanwhile, HD DVD may exploit special features at the expense of audio (where most people won't even notice)."
Sigh.