From: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org (fegmaniax-digest) To: fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Subject: fegmaniax-digest V16 #440 Reply-To: fegmaniax@smoe.org Sender: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk fegmaniax-digest Sunday, December 30 2007 Volume 16 : Number 440 Today's Subjects: ----------------- The Death of High Fidelity In the age of MP3s, sound quality is worse than ever [HwyCDRre] Re: Pitchfuck [Rex ] hope so [Jill Brand ] RE: Reap [michaeljbachman@comcast.net] Re: The Death of High Fidelity In the age of MP3s, sound quality is worse than ever [2fs ] Re: Pitchfuck [2fs ] Re: daring to be... [lep ] reap [lep ] digital camera...or paperweight? [2fs ] Re: fegmaniax-digest V16 #439 [grutness@slingshot.co.nz] Shadowcat [HwyCDRrev@aol.com] Re: daring to be... [Sebastian Hagedorn ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2007 10:59:38 EST From: HwyCDRrev@aol.com Subject: The Death of High Fidelity In the age of MP3s, sound quality is worse than ever (http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/17777619/the_death_of_high_fidelity/2) The Death of High Fidelity In the age of MP3s, sound quality is worse than ever _http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/17777619/the_death_of_high_fidelity_ (http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/17777619/the_death_of_high_fidelity) **************************************See AOL's top rated recipes (http://food.aol.com/top-rated-recipes?NCID=aoltop00030000000004) ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2007 13:48:28 -0500 From: Rex Subject: Re: Pitchfuck On Dec 27, 2007 12:36 PM, Jeff Dwarf wrote: > Steve Schiavo wrote: > > The NPs are not getting much mention. On the Audities top 20 lists > > so far they've made the top spot once, but that's the only time I > > remember seeing them. I guess they are no longer in favor. > > Challengers is more of a marinater than the first three, so there are > probably still a lot of people who don't know how much they love it > yet. It might end up showing up more often on "BEST OF THE 00s" lists > than on "BEST OF 07"s. Or at least, more than other albums from this > year do. > Challengers is great... and surely all four NP's records qualify as among the decade's best. Ten best, even. What shocks me is the amount of positive year end stuff on the Wilco and Rilo Kiley albums. It seems like they have both been used by critics to feed their need to sneer at those bands' fans for "not getting it" and being "narrow minded". But those are bad records... ain't nobody gonna be listening to that shit in five years. Or even the day after tomorrow, the critics having used them to make a so-called point already. I guess I have to hear the Okkervil River thing. I have a block against it where every time I see that name I briefly process it as an intended bad ass-misspelling of "Overkill", sorta like "Maksimum D-Struksshun" or some shit. - -Rex ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2007 14:53:31 -0500 (EST) From: Jill Brand Subject: hope so It was written: "Challengers is more of a marinater than the first three, so there are probably still a lot of people who don't know how much they love it yet." I really want this to be true. My kids think its the bee's knees, but I keep thinking I'm listening to Fleetwood Mac (and I loathe Fleetwood Mac). Well, no, I like it better than Fleetwood Mac because I don't loathe it, but I like all their other albums better. Maybe it's that fourth album thing. There are lots of bands whose first three albums I like and then #4 doesn't move me. Like the Decemberists. Uh-oh, the Shins will be the next to fall. What's Vampire Weekend all about? My son seems to like them. Jill ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2007 21:52:42 +0000 From: michaeljbachman@comcast.net Subject: RE: Reap - -------------- Original message -------------- From: "michael wells" > MJB > > Oscar was a jazz pianist pioneer, no doubt about it. Mr. Wells came back with: > Bugger, they're dropping like flies now. > > It may be apocryphal, but I read an interview a while back - it was with a > guitarist, can't remember which one - who when asked what it was like to > play with Oscar replied "Hard. We'd get this line going, and soon as we had > it figured out Oscar would start removing it (harmonically). We'd catch up, > and he would keep taking it further out." > > I've got his stuff boxed away. Must get around to digging it out. I don't have a lot of Oscar, Night Train, We Get Requests, and the two cd's by The Very Tall Band (Oscar, Ray Brown and Milt Jackson). He cut so many albums, but I can heartily recommend both Night Train and We Get Requests for those that want to explore Oscar And here is one that I don't have and is on my short list of things to buy based on many recommendations from various jzz programs I've listened to over the years: http://www.amazon.com/Trail-Dreams-Canadian-Oscar-Peterson/dp/B00004ZDQ5/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1198878248&sr=1-14 Michael B. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2007 15:57:04 -0600 From: 2fs Subject: Re: The Death of High Fidelity In the age of MP3s, sound quality is worse than ever On 12/28/07, HwyCDRrev@aol.com wrote: > > ( > http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/17777619/the_death_of_high_fidelity/2 > ) > > > > > The Death of High Fidelity > In the age of MP3s, sound quality is worse than ever Of course (as the article makes clear), it isn't entirely mp3s' fault: arguably, it's radio's. The first album I can remember as being noticeably louder than a lot of others was Frank Black's first solo album - it begins quiet, but once the full volume kicks in on "Los Angeles," I remember wondering wow, how come this is so loud? I just spent a lot of time putting together a rather massive year-end mix (in 8 parts: go to my blog and page back through entries to find directions to links), and one thing I did was try to balance the volume on various tracks. On the one that consists entirely of tracks from my 20 favorite 2007 releases, it was pretty amazing how pumped the volume was. Average levels of - -8 dBs were common, some even higher (by which I mean -6 is "higher" than - -8). In order to match up quieter tracks, I either had to compress the quieter tracks or reduce the volume dramatically of the louder ones. What I don't get, though, is the end-of-the-world tone of the article. Haven't these things always been cyclical? Convenience vs. quality: at some point all these kids are going to want to listen to something other than their iPods, are going to (some of them, anyway) develop more of an interest in music, and want to hear better sound quality. At first, that'll lead them to uncompressed sound files (and within a year or so, I suspect, uncompressed .wav files - or something like .flacs - will be common online: already it's easy to find 320kbps mp3s, which are nearly 25% of CD size, whereas 128 was the height of online fidelity only a couple of years ago), and some of them will become Steve Albini and rant about the corruption of sound. Some of them will become producers who want the sort of dynamic range digital sound was said to offer way back when. (Problem is, in a lot of listening environments, you don't want dynamic range: that's why it's damned near impossible to listen to classical music in the car on the freeway. If the quiet parts are audible, the loud parts blow your doors off.) - -- ...Jeff Norman The Architectural Dance Society http://spanghew.blogspot.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2007 16:36:01 -0600 From: 2fs Subject: Re: Pitchfuck Sign of aging: In the A.V. Club this week (or maybe it was last - it's online so what difference does it make anyway) the list of "least essential CDs of 2007" was released. One of them was by Perry Farrell's latest project - - and the aging thing is this: the lede for that one is something like "it's hard to believe something so irrelevant can come from someone who was once relevant." If by "relevant" they mean "actually did music that mattered beyond sales figures, and that was any good," well, I suppose if you were 12 when that Jane's Addiction record came out, it might have been earth-shattering...but to me, it was never all that great. I mean, recycle Led Zeppelin, add in 20 gallons of tattoos and makeup, and add annoying vocal effects. Blah-blah-blah-snooze. That's another album from that era whose alleged "importance" has never made any sense to me (the other one, already bitched about here earlier, is that Guns 'n' Roses one). ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2007 16:32:20 -0600 From: 2fs Subject: Re: Pitchfuck On 12/28/07, Rex wrote: > > On Dec 27, 2007 12:36 PM, Jeff Dwarf wrote: > > > Steve Schiavo wrote: > > > The NPs are not getting much mention. On the Audities top 20 lists > > > so far they've made the top spot once, but that's the only time I > > > remember seeing them. I guess they are no longer in favor. > > > > Challengers is more of a marinater than the first three, so there are > > probably still a lot of people who don't know how much they love it > > yet. It might end up showing up more often on "BEST OF THE 00s" lists > > than on "BEST OF 07"s. Or at least, more than other albums from this > > year do. > > > > Challengers is great... and surely all four NP's records qualify as among > the decade's best. Ten best, even. Another band to add to the "they can't possibly have that many good albums in a row - let's dock 'em this year" list: Spoon. Their last four (Girls Can Tell, Kill the Moonlight, Gimme Fiction, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga) are all excellent (although the title of this year's release is annoying, and even more annoying to type). What shocks me is the amount of positive year end stuff on the Wilco and > Rilo Kiley albums. It seems like they have both been used by critics to > feed their need to sneer at those bands' fans for "not getting it" and > being > "narrow minded". But those are bad records... ain't nobody gonna be > listening to that shit in five years. I haven't heard the Rilo Kiley thing - never did that much for me anyway (although someone really should have pointed out to me a few years back that Ms. J. Lewis is nice to look at). But I will defend the Wilco album. Not vociferously - it's not in my top 20 or anything - only that I do not think it sucks, and I do think some people will be listening to it in five years. Granted, those people will probably also be looking forward to spring when another endless jam-band tour begins - but still. (Seriously: it sounds like the best record the Grateful Dead didn't put out in the late '70s.) Right now, I'm listening to Sinatra's Only the Lonely. Is it legal to listen to that album during the daytime and in summer? I suspect not. - -- ...Jeff Norman The Architectural Dance Society http://spanghew.blogspot.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2007 18:56:58 -0500 From: lep Subject: Re: daring to be... Sebastian says: > Sorry, way late on this one ... fortunately, it's never _too_ late to talk "my so-called life". > I guess, and it turned out she was happy to get it. You see, I got her the > German translation of the novelization a few years back (both volumes), and > at the time she didn't show much interest - probably it was just too early. > What I didn't know was that she now had read them, had read in a magazine > that the DVD set had come out, and was looking forward to it :-) there's probably some precise age where that switch gets turned out. and it's likely the same age that a teenaged girl would start talking about how cute jordan catalano is. btw, i never tire of how the characters on MSCL use both first and last name to refer to one another. it's so high school. > My sister and she watched the pilot today. When we had dinner together my > sister wanted to know why *I* watch "girls series" like that ... sigh. I > guess that MSCL and such speak to females more than to males, but is it > really so weird for a guy to enjoy them as well? i always thought guys would like the show in the way that it's really a pretty good window into the lives of teenaged girls. i do think there's something magical about girls at that age, and MSCL portrays it very well. it's rather the same thing that "heavenly creatures" and "the virgin suicides" are really about. not that there wouldn't be other reasons for guys to watch the show. on the other hand, i can see it being the type of of show that guys would sort of avoid on some sort of "guy principle". but they would have to really avoid it, because if they watched once or twice, they'd probably get sucked in. > >> BTW 2: I don't think I've ever seen Claire Danes in anything else, even > >> though I adore her in MSCL. > > > > i've seen her in a fair number of things, but now that i'm thinking > > about it, they tend to be movies in the category of "movies i see with > > female friends". > > Yeah, well, see above ;-) > > > off the top of my head: "home for the holidays" > > Wow, she was in that? I used to be a huge Jodie Foster fan and of course > I've seen it, but only once, when it came out. jodie foster was in that? now i'm confused. or forgetful. or, most likely, both. > > other regular movies were > > "u-turn" > > She was in U-Turn?? My God, seems as though I can basically forget about > all movies that I haven't seen for 10 years or more - I don't remember them > anyway. I remember J-Lo, but that's about it. it was a small part, but...she was so damned pretty. > > and "igby goes down" (side note: "igby goes down" was one of > > those movies that seemed most people liked, and i couldn't figure out > > why.) > > I kinda liked the trailer but somehow did not see the movie. it was kind of cynical in a way that i didn't like (which is saying something, because i generally like cynicism - i think perhaps the cynicism seemed like a not-so-good 2nd-generation and quite distorted wes anderson.) also, another "movie i saw with female friends with claire danes" was "the hours". oh, boy, did i not like that one. i can't even remember ms. danes through all the drone. > >> The character I relate to the most is Brian > >> Krakow, unfortunately ;-) > > > > i don't think i've ever heard anyone say they relate to any other > > character besides brian. > > Seriously? I really would've thought that a lot of girls could relate to > Angela! And guys to Ricky, if they're sexually ambiguous. well, half-seriously. i have a natural gift for exaggeration (i think it's built into my sense of humour as a kind of retaliation for how very careful one has to be about exaggeration when doing math or programming.) (i, of course, related to angela, because she thinks too much, and needs a friend like rayanne graff to help her escape her own seriousness. it took all of twenty minutes for me to fall for angela - - in the pilot, when she's at dinner, thinking about weird the act of chewing is....) xo - -- - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "People with opinions just go around bothering one another." - The Buddha ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2007 19:07:59 -0500 From: lep Subject: reap marriage of sean penn and robin wright http://www.imdb.com/news/wenn/#1 occasionally, a celebrity divorce bums me out. after larry and laurie david this year (i think it was this year), this is celebrity breakup bummer #2. on the other hand, now it's charlie rose's Big Chance. i just know he's secretly in love with mr. penn. xo - -- - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "People with opinions just go around bothering one another." - The Buddha ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2007 18:26:57 -0600 From: 2fs Subject: digital camera...or paperweight? So, my 4-year-old camera (a Canon A-70) suddenly went kablooey this evening. I'd taken a few shots, when - blrk: nothing but dark. I tried reformatting the CF card, resetting the default settings, etc. What happens is that it doesn't sense anything - no light. It suddenly turned into Ray Charles, in other words. Any ideas? My guess is that it's utterly non- cost-effective to try to repair a 4-year-old camera, so it's time to buy a new camera - but if anyone says, oh, it's just this little chromium switch here, that'll fix it, that'd be great. - -- ...Jeff Norman The Architectural Dance Society http://spanghew.blogspot.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 29 Dec 2007 12:04:11 +1300 From: grutness@slingshot.co.nz Subject: Re: fegmaniax-digest V16 #439 Michael escrit: >I guess this is what I get for not reproducing...for not -- even if I'd named >my pretend kids something modern, yet semi-sensible like "Dylan" or "Marley" >- -- being around playgrounds- and classrooms-full of Madisons, Addisons, and, >er, Jackisons. And to think -- first for the Senate and now for President, I >supported a candidate with a "weird" first name, and wondered if he could be >elected without resorting to some more palatable nickname like "Barry." Turns >out, I probably shouldn't have worried. It's a brave new world of names out >there -- and I never saw it coming... I know what you mean - and (as always the pedant) - the attempts to jazz names up by deliberately (or accidentally) misspelling them. I met someone called Jaymee recently and actually said to her "It's a shame your parents couldn't spell!" A case in point is (top of the list???) "Aiden". Aidan's a perfectly acceptable Irish name. Oh, and as for politicians with weird names, don't worry - that won't be forquite some time. Nowadays, you've still got politicos with perfetly sensible old-fashioned names like George, Donald, Bill, Al, erm... Barack and Condaleezza. >For what it's worth, the list of my nieces' and nephews' names, in >chronological order... Kesi, Onawa, and Anton. It's a brave new world indeed. James - -- James Dignan, Dunedin, New Zealand -.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.- =-.-=-.-=-.- You talk to me as if from a distance .-=-.-=-.-=-. -=-. And I reply with impressions chosen from another time .-=- .-=-.-=-.-=-.-=- (Brian Eno - "By this River") -.-=-.-=-.-=-.-= ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 29 Dec 2007 09:05:37 EST From: HwyCDRrev@aol.com Subject: Shadowcat so - i'm getting confused are these part of one of the yep rock box sets as well ? In a message dated 12/29/2007 4:11:39 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, tulloch1967@yahoo.co.uk writes: The Museum of RH now has artwork and a tracklisting for Shadowcat. They're also taking orders for the USA. Here's the tracklisting: Robyn Hitchcock Shadow Cat (Satorial Records, UK, 2008) 1. For Debbie Reynolds 2. Never Have to See You Again 3. LoveAaffair 4. The Wind Cries Mary 5. High On Yourself 6. Because You're Over 7. The Cat Walks Her Kind of Line 8. Statue With a Walkman 9. The Green Boy 10. Real Dot 11. Nothing But Time 12. Beautiful Shock 13. Baby-doll 14. Shadow Cat _http://www.robynhithttp://www.http://wwhtt_ (http://www.robynhitchcock.com/auditori.htm) **************************************See AOL's top rated recipes (http://food.aol.com/top-rated-recipes?NCID=aoltop00030000000004) ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 30 Dec 2007 12:08:03 +0100 From: Sebastian Hagedorn Subject: Re: daring to be... - -- lep is rumored to have mumbled on 28. Dezember 2007 18:56:58 -0500 regarding Re: daring to be...: > there's probably some precise age where that switch gets turned out. > and it's likely the same age that a teenaged girl would start talking > about how cute jordan catalano is. Maybe :-) I asked her about him and she did seem to like him, whereas my sister thought he looked just like any other guy off the street. Hm. Maybe she's already too old (?) > btw, i never tire of how the characters on MSCL use both first and > last name to refer to one another. it's so high school. I don't think we ever did that. Either you only used the last name or you had nicknames for the people. >> My sister and she watched the pilot today. When we had dinner together my >> sister wanted to know why *I* watch "girls series" like that ... sigh. I >> guess that MSCL and such speak to females more than to males, but is it >> really so weird for a guy to enjoy them as well? > > i always thought guys would like the show in the way that it's really > a pretty good window into the lives of teenaged girls. Exactly. Unfortunately I didn't have that when it would've counted. Although I wonder if it would've done me much good anyway ;-) > i do think > there's something magical about girls at that age, and MSCL portrays > it very well. it's rather the same thing that "heavenly creatures" > and "the virgin suicides" are really about. I really liked both of those as well, although I've only read Virgin Suicides. I have to say that to me the latter tells much more about the boys than about the girls. >> > off the top of my head: "home for the holidays" >> >> Wow, she was in that? I used to be a huge Jodie Foster fan and of course >> I've seen it, but only once, when it came out. > > jodie foster was in that? now i'm confused. or forgetful. or, most > likely, both. Ah, I should have clarified: she *directed* it. > also, another "movie i saw with female friends with claire danes" was > "the hours". oh, boy, did i not like that one. i can't even remember > ms. danes through all the drone. I missed that one. I know many women who liked it a lot. I don't think I know any guys who've even seen it :-) I was at a reading of the author where he read from his new novel. He seemed nice enough, but it didn't make me want to read the book. >> > i don't think i've ever heard anyone say they relate to any other >> > character besides brian. >> >> Seriously? I really would've thought that a lot of girls could relate to >> Angela! And guys to Ricky, if they're sexually ambiguous. > > well, half-seriously. i have a natural gift for exaggeration (i think > it's built into my sense of humour as a kind of retaliation for how > very careful one has to be about exaggeration when doing math or > programming.) That's quite alright, it's just not easy to tell in writing. > (i, of course, related to angela, because she thinks too much, and > needs a friend like rayanne graff to help her escape her own > seriousness. So did you have one yourself? NP: I'm From Barcelona - Let Me Introduce My Friends - -- Sebastian Hagedorn Am alten Stellwerk 22, 50733 Kvln, Germany http://www.uni-koeln.de/~a0620/ "Being just contaminates the void" - Robyn Hitchcock ------------------------------ End of fegmaniax-digest V16 #440 ********************************