Stephen Mejias

Written in blue ink on the white space of pages of Fast">http://www.fastcompany.com/homepage/index.html">Fast Company magazine, while waiting for the plane, yesterday morning, at McCarran Airport in Las Vegas.

Me: We're gonna go see Brokeback">http://www.brokebackmountainmovie.com/getflash.html">Brokeback Mountain tonight.

Elizabeth: [Gasp of horror!]

Me: What? What's with the gasp of horror?

Elizabeth: Steel yourself.

Me: Why? Am I gonna cry? I'm not afraid of crying. I cry all the time, anyway.

Elizabeth: No, I don't think you're going to cry. But you might wince. A lot.

Me: Oh.

The October issue of Stereophile shipped to press yesterday afternoon. (Hallelujah.) We are already deep into the November issue, while our new editorial assistant, Ariel">http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/the_young_guy/">Ariel Bitran, is tackling the 2011 Buyer’s Guide. In addition to all of that, and on top of the regular stuff, the entire office is in the">http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/boltz_cd_rack/">the process of moving onto the 6th floor of our 261 Madison Avenue location. Construction crews are tearing down walls and building new cubicles, painters are turning white and gray into blue and cream, movers are carrying tables and desks up flights of stairs. My office is cramped with boxeshttp://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/buried/">boxes;, but this time they’re moving boxes.

I should have just slept here. It certainly would have been easier. And, of course, it would have saved me the commute. However, the thought of enormous roaches warming up against my thighs throughout the air conditioned evening kept me from crashing on JA's couch.

Hola Familia.

I hope you're all doing very well. It's an unusually cool and rainy day here in NJ/NYC.

I just got off the phone with Nathaniel Friedman, a writer working on a "vinyl revival" piece scheduled to appear in an upcoming issue of Penthouse, that finest of fine men's periodicals. I think it went fairly well. If nothing else, it gives me an excuse to buy the magazine.

I was sort of surprised when I saw that Urban Outfitters, the hipster home and apparel shop, had started selling LPs. I was more surprised to learn that they had a headphone listening station&#151you can actually walk into the store with your iPod and audition a bunch of headphones. But now Urban Outfitters is carrying Music Hall turntables and Audioengine powered loudspeakers. I really like this.