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Fantasies & Delusions (Opus 1-10 Music for Solo Piano) by Billy Joel (2001) https://open.qobuz.com/album/0696998539723 Example: I remember hearing about this release back in the day, but never really thought about it since. I really like it, great playing, great themes and variations. I will turn to it for modern classical piano, nothing really to do with it being Billy.

We've got some uncharacteristically early fall weather here on MV, that means a man's thoughts turn to ...blues metal. I've been a fan of Glenn Danzig's music for 40 years now. The Misfits need no introduction nor explanation. Samhain was an amusing but short-lived diversion into goth rock. The first four Danzig albums (and the fun little Thrall-Demonsweatlive EP) are represent Glenn in his absolute prime. He had the ideal backing band for his possessed Elvis persona. Eerie Von is the perfect backbone for the whole thing, and already had experience dealing with Glenn in Samhain. John Christ's riffs are leadenly heavy but still cut sharply through the mix. Chuck Biscuits got his start in punk rock (DOA, Black Flag, Circle Jerks) but adapts seamlessly to the demonic blues sound of Danzig. He's not a showy drummer, but he always does exactly the right thing. The efforts of all of these men are captured by producer Rick Rubin, who was also at the absolute top of his game at the time. Rick has done an awful lot to tarnish his own legacy, but the truth is in the 80s and 90s he was a music god. The first Danzig album is lightning in a bottle, and really without peer. I'm biased, because I bought it new on cassette in 1988, at a very impressionable age. Similarly, I bought II and III on CD when they came out. Both albums seek to the one(s) before them, and succeed in some areas and fall short in others. Also, they straight up fucking ROCK. Even at his most goofy, Glenn was a savant at conjuring compelling cheese. I didn't pick up 4 until years later, some time post millennium. While it's vastly inferior to the first three, it still a solid listen. Glenn was veering into experimental territory and well out of his natural depth. This would be a harbinger of (bad) things to come. He was fortunate to still have the classic band lineup and Rick Rubin producing. 4 was recorded in legendary Sound City studio, and I'm sure that helped. Look up the albums recorded there sometime, it's a staggering list. The album with the greatest guitar tone ever was recorded there. (I will die on this hill.) All of the above was enough to counterweight Glenn's worst ideas. Mostly.

TBH Stretch, I suspect you are in fact the ideal target market for the iFold new iPhone Duo™. The strength of Apple products is the ecosystem. The individual pieces are only okay and invariably overpriced, but like 1980s Transformer toys, they make something really cool when combined. As I've mentioned, I'm friends with a silent generation couple here on MV. He turns 90 at the end of the month(!) and has no use for mobile phones, smart or otherwise. She's a comparatively youthful 86 and is in the market for a new iPhone. She has already got a recent iPad Pro (which is a very slick device) and a MacBook with 8GB of RAM (I swear, I turned my back on her for five minutes and she bought the exact worst model.) I've been encouraging her to at least consider the Duo. Their son, who lives in Spain, has an Apple Vision Pro. I am unsure if he uses it to translate on the fly. He also has a vegan girlfriend who has alienated the rest of the family. I swear, vegans are cultists. They take what starts out as a good idea and twist it into some fundamentalist extremism that... So uh anyway, the machine to buy for legacy Intel based apps is a 2018 i7 Mini, or if one is feeling insane, an Intel Mac Pro. I actually have a friend who has been taunting me with the idea of selling his.

I don't think we should be sad - she had a life well-lived, and acted in podcast works well into her 90's.

Of Time by Pierpont & Helgeson (2025) https://open.qobuz.com/album/tbpyvouhx520b Example: 2025 music sounding like 60s spy movie soundtrack? Sure. I can dig it.

I used to know the exact number of my OS, it never mattered even one rat fart, so now I really don’t care.

Got to be honest I don't even know what OS I am running anymore. WTF even is Golden Gate 27.0.1? If my MacBook doesn't crash and I can get my email I'm in old-fart heaven.

Music on TIDALgreen star - bleeding swirlsListen to bleeding swirls on TIDAL in exceptional sound quality, or on your choice of serviceExample:

Lunch á deux With plates. Fancy.

Jambalaya on the bayou

She makes a Cameo on the Netflix show "How to get to Heaven from Belfast". Ep. 3 iirc. Another person to add to the list of, if not "best guitar players" at least excellent guitar players doing interesting things with the instrument is Jeff Parker.

Thanks, Pars! I think the case is too hot, so let it runs at 18mA today. A little bit cooler than yesterday when stable. The attenuator was made by me, following the picture below (50K) : Transformer was custom-made by local company. 2x330vac 250ma 2x18vac 500ma And about the voltage select PCB.... it is from my dead Denafrips iris DDC, e-waste recycling.🤪

RIP - Freddie Jackson 70

This is "Lush" by Green Star, not "Green Star" by Lush, but it sure sounds like them.

AI Lemony Chicken & Mushroom Skillet for Two

Required listening. RIP EMS

This one kind of stings. In 1994, I was totally in love with this fantastic girl called Nicky and she ditched me for another guy that she's still married to. He has all his hair, does triathlons and sh1t and they have three strapping sons, so honestly pretty great call from Nicky in retrospect. 🤷‍♂️

Eva Marie Saint passes at 102 https://www.cbsnews.com/news/eva-marie-saint-dies-age-102-on-the-waterfront/

So Jim Bakker croaked, which got me thinking about the 80s. He had a sex scandal with Jessica Hahn. She cashed in on her "fame" and appeared in a few music videos, most infamously with Sam Kinison. That one sucks. Sam was at times a great comedian, but his music career was pathetic. In a much more interesting example, she appeared in a video by the nuclear (and ecology) obsessed Nuclear Assault. Not my favorite example of 80s thrash, but it holds up pretty well.

I'm pretty sure he hates all of Humanity America, but California particularly much. ...which tells me you're doing something right. Keep it up! https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-10-05/us-pays-950-million-to-buy-california-ice-jails-from-geo-group

That would suck, but I just want to verify Trump still loves San Francisco, right?

That is a very compact build, congrats! I know Nelson Pass says that around 50-55°C is what he usually recommends as a max, but that is for MosFets. Is that a Khozomo attenuator? It also looks like you tucked a voltage select PCB in the upper left corner... nice! What transformer did you use? Custom?

White House defends Trump comment to let Iran 'take out'...Gavin Newsom called the remarks "deranged", but the White House said Trump was warning of the risk of a nuclear Iran.