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Another Maphra - source. Elizabeth's take. I have said it before, God bless female Metal singers.

A Matter of Time: The Final Hour by Laufey (2026) https://open.qobuz.com/album/flacllvcjozx0 Example: It is not easy to pick an example: Part jazz, part musical, part pop. 19 tracks and just over an hour. It is pretty album, with lots of arrangements by Spencer Stewart. Big production album. Listening deep there is like 40+ tracks per song (probably a lot more).

Not a person, but RIP Hampshire College. "Hamster" or "Hempshire" as it was known was always the junior sibling to the other four colleges in the happy valley. Hampshire has been plagued by rumors of financial troubles for years at this point. I grew up going to shows at a couple different Hampshire venues. Phish played there regularly in the late 80s and early 90s. There is a longstanding urban legend that the characters in Scooby Doo are modeled after the five colleges: Fred is Amherst, Daphne is Smith, Velma is Mount Holyoke (these roles have reversed in my observance), Shaggy is Hampshire and Scooby is UMASS. The legend is not true of course, but the parallels between Shaggy and Hampshire are particularly strong. For 60 years, Hampshire was an important part of the landscape of the Pioneer Valley and the Five (now Four) College area. It's sad to see it go.

I took my daughter to see Jean-Michel Jarre maybe 12 years ago in Birmingham (UK). I got us tickets in the middle of the front row. Now I've seen Jarre before, so I warned Liz of a spectacular entry. Sure enough, fan of light and then a fist comes through it. Once it really starts, Liz says "wow - he's cute"; so I told her that he was 7 years older than me - and he'd had a bit of work done to keep the cuteness factor. It was, it has to be said, a totally awsome Jarre experience. Ancient synths, laser harp - the full beans.

There's a guy I follow on Flickr who has a Fuji X-E3 mirrorless body. He adapts a variety of old manual lenses to it, which is how he caught my attention. He's got a taste for old and custom tube gear and has a whole album of space heaters and funny wooden boxes.

Which is another shame, because Audeze brought a Carbon CC to Canjam Chicago in 23 and the original CRBN was best in show for me. Hardly any space at Axpona for anyone.

Sounds like Jean-Michel Jarre on the soundtrack.

Ouch, that's really sad as the Z10e is pretty much the bottom of the barrel when it comes to electrostatic amps.

Oh, man.....RIP Mr. Kroft....also hits home here.... One of my most notable memories was being extremely drunk from a Friday night party, it went deep into Saturday and I remember watching HR Puffnstuf the next morning while still occasionally spitting up....good times.....🙄 Another one hitting home too: RIP Máire Brennan (phonetically pronounced and often written as Moya). Have enjoyed Clannad's music for many years.... https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crm112y4jyzo

da7d922377ae419daf8fbcdf319722ac_d3cdd07b32.mp4 Pioneer stack and 🍑

Middle Eastern wars just sounded ... better in the 80s.

I had a chance to listen to an Audeze CRBN2 through this amp yesterday at Upscale Audio's Axpona 2026 table. Audeze had the Z10e at their booth for auditioning and the experience was starkly in the Z10e's favor. The Feliks Audio Bliss smothered the imaging, engagement and dynamics completely. I don't know about the Z10e's design or build quality, but the end result of my experience was a $20k+ amp missing the point of electrostatics.

RIP Sid Krofft thank you for my acid trip childhood shows.

Ex Skylark gathering nibbles.

Mega necro here. Last sumemr I bought an unlocked Android tablet. Today I taught myself how to use Morphe to patch the YouTube and Reddit apps for android. It involved a lot of jumping through hoops that were unfamiliar to me. It took me four tries, but managed to get both working. This means I now have native (or if you prefer, "native") apps for both platforms that support ad blocking. If I'm not mistaken, the YT app now has integrated SponsorBlock support, which is quite something.

One board, channel, completed. ZF setup was successfully. SS setup didn’t fall out well. It turned out that I’ve connected the feedback wrong with terrible current draw an 8.4V offset at output. After correction, easily done, offset came down to fluctuating 30-40 mV and BIAS acted all right, but not good enough to be used as an amplifier. Now, I feel I’m done with this project and end it with, IMO, a satisfactory Zero Feedback dynamic amplifier. Perhaps I’ll try to get the SS mode working in some future. Main problem is my eyes and enough steady hands to solder SMD and… lack of competence. I just copy others designs. Thank you Kevin. I have some PCB to much for own use. If interested to try this – ping me. Boards are right and left channels, one version is ZF two layers and the other FF/SS version (SS probably nor working) is four layers. Both versions have issues so they will be for free. A nice contribution to Doctors Without Borders will be appreciated.

The bike is looking SWEET! I got out for a nice 27mi windy rip around town this afternoon. Felt good to be back outside again before I have to travel for a few days and be away from the bike.

Rainy Day Brunch

I kind of despise this guy and his opinions. He’s so happy of meeting himself…

A very exciting Sunday in Hell. No spoilers this time! Apropos of Roubaix, I put some 40mm slicks on to try out. I am very interested to see how they feel.

Classical Guitarist Reacts to Rick Beato Reacts to Angine de Poitrine

^^ Because it's a goddamn brilliant camera. I got to shoot with a D4S at work for a bit but have too much Sony stuff at this point to ever practically think about another system. Speaking of Sony, the A7V's 30fps is goddamn bonkers. Sounds like a Gatling gun but allows for capturing some pretty great shots even in mediocre hands. Edit - yes, that's Andrew with the glasses running the 800m today.

My kayak instructor from Chile is playing as “Granny’s Mason Jar” tonight. Good bluegrass.