Stephen Mejias

On the train this morning, deep into Aaron Copland’s classic, What to Listen for in Music, which Art Dudley discusses in our November issue, I read a bit about rhythms and polyrhythms. Copland is giving a brief history on the use and evolution of rhythm in modern Western composition, explaining how we got from basic two-four time marches to much more complex combinations of two or more independent rhythms in varying times. This is what I read:

In our December issue, I write about the Emotiva ERC-2 CD player, which, at $449, brought me many hours of listening pleasure. Stereophile editor John Atkinson will describe the player’s measured performance in an upcoming issue. In January, I’ll write more about the Emotiva, and, in February, I’ll discuss NAD’s affordable ($300) C 515BEE CD player.

Obviously, I’ve been listening to a lot of CDs lately; and, while I have started to long for my LPs, I haven’t really gone crazy or anything. Listening to CDs can be fun, too—especially when the discs hold music by Alva Noto and Ryuchi Sakamoto, David Sylvian, and Matthew Shipp.

Meanwhile, Natalie and Nicole have mentioned a rumor that’s spreading all over the Internet:

Howdy, Stephen!

He was looking at me. I acknowledged, nodded politely, turned away.

Her name was E. and the gentle quaver in her soft voice gave me the impression that she was nervous, anxious, young. Something about it seemed sweet, seemed sincere. Which made me want to help her more. She was calling from England, and the connection was crystal clear. I could hear her perfectly, though she was so far away. She was doing research on the high end hi-fi industry.

Regular readers of this blog have noticed that I am hard up for some loving. I'm aware of this because a few regular readers have actually mentioned it to me. (Hi, mom!) I mean, shit, casual readers only have to scan the first few posts on this page to realize that "it's been a long time for me."