Leaderboard

You know how I feel about pussy.

Great news, at least for the fencing crowd and our family. The US men' and women's teams medaled, silver...even without Lance's help. The French women's Olympian whom Lance used to train with and bested a few times, took gold. She was coached by her fiancé who used to train at the club as well. While training in So Cal they used to come over for my BBQ and Booker Syrah. I truly believe that is what led to their results and medals.

Sunday morning heart attack breakfast... Chili con queso & sausage omelet, fried potatoes and onion, biscuits (AKA Brent's Kryptonite) and iced coffee.

Have been listening to a bunch of Cocteau Twins and This Mortal Coil and highly recommend it.

That sounds like good parenting.

I made Chicken Vesuvio for Dorothy and myself.

Bluegrass On the slopes of Mt Tam The view from the clubhouse is like a sepia filter

The Hario V60 02 arrived along with CAFEC filters. I watched James Hoffman's how-to on YT and gave my first cup a go. First mistake I made was the recommended dosage. I should have stuck with the same dosage I use on the Chemex as I find a 15:1 more to my liking. It felt more fiddly than my Chemex but a good bit of that was because it was my first time using a different method / tool. I'll give it another run with the 15:1 and go from there. I did like that the coffee goes straight into my cup and there is no go between to absorb heat. The cup was OK but watery compared to what I prefer. Learning curve and that's part of the fun...something different. HS

Steve?

This dish is absolutely going into rotation! The pan sauce you make from the drippings and wine was incredible!

I thought it was excellent. Actually, thought of you when I posted. It will go into rotation. So... The Warriors Original Motion Picture Soundtrack Various Artists 1979 https://album.link/i/1440719125 The walsh: The rest of the soundtrack is very '79

What was your drawdown? If you're using the CAFEC light roast filter plus a V60 and have a "normal" drawdown time (~3:00-4:30) it very well may be too coarsely ground; I've had drawdowns of, like, 7-9 minutes when grinding appropriately fine with those.

Well, the E61 fell through, but I found a store demo Breville Dual Boiler for cheap, so that’s what I have coming now. I steamed dairy for the first time since this past Christmas, this morning. Boy dairy is sure easier than plant milk, even out if practice.

Wang Chung; points on the curves

Finished the spoilboard. Not exactly what I wanted, but the only way I could maximize real estate on the small CNC.

Desmond Blue Paul Desmond (w/strings) 1962 https://album.link/i/525880811 Example (one of the Autumn Leaves): Pretty Album

Pistol Danny Boyle telling the story of the Sex Pistols? I like the cast. I like the story. The music is as killer as ever. I'm halfway through the mini-series and having a great time.

FTFY!

That looks awesome, Steve!

I'm proud of him in so many ways, but I failed completely to get him interested in high end audio

...from a few nights ago. Time to get a bigger stronger fence me thinks. At least it has been over a month since I caught my last rattle snake. https://neighbors.ring.com/n/ZrDW0wLfmz

It's that time again. Before: After:

Finished a charcuterie board and beer opener for the neighborhood 4th of July auction.

FWIW the X9K are my new favorite Stax overall, if price was not a factor (it is). The comments about the 3-blob and slightly diffuse soundstage and perhaps too much leading edge are ringing a bell and likely founded (not really bothering me, though). It's not a reference neutral presentation perhaps, but it's close, and it's very pleasant with their relaxed dynamics and harmonic richness in that big head space. Some people I know tell me they love it, some others don't as much (preferring the SR-Omega or bits and pieces from others). I thought everyone would love the X9K, but no such thing yet. To my aging ears they are not as bothering as the comparatively thin and lifeless sound of the 009/S and I like them better than the HE90 (not if I'd buy one anytime soon, as it's EV price range). For me, the X9K are completely enjoyable with my preferred genres (acoustic, jazz, small chamber, orchestra, pop, rock, indie etc), more so than the 007 Mk1 or Mk2 or Lambdas/Gamma with any mods, though not the best price/performance ratio. That still has to go to my Libratum V3 and V5 (by far), which both are very close, better in some aspects (body, mids, bass impact at different frequency, focus, treble perhaps more organic) and slightly behind in others (efficiency, build quality, soundstage height, clarity/resolution, overall presentation), though YMMV and it's also genre and source/upstream dependent. (It's pity I haven't heard about Dima in a good while - no idea what happened, if you know something, Spritzer, please tell, but I have to assume Phenomenon is out, unfortunately, so you can consider the references to the Libratum irrelevant). I have yet to hear the CRBN, but based on what I read and hear around, might be so different, that they're catering to different preferences, and likely not mine. Will see, but likely I will wait for their next version.

Welp, last two weeks have been a headache with regard to showreels. Two weeks ago, while attempting to connect the mic to my mixer, I jostled the Thunderbolt cable enough to cause a momentary disconnect. Traktor freezes playback but resumes immediately when it gets disconnected from the DAC. The Mixlr app, OTOH, throws a complete fit and won't work right until it's restarts. The end result is that the record of that show got ruined. This past friday I used the tiny micro PC I have to run the Mixlr app, thus avoiding the possibility of the same problem cropping up two weeks in a row. Unfortunately, the UI on the Windows version of the Mixlr app is considerably different and the record function appears at a different stage in the launch process. There's also no way to enable recordings after going live. That meant there's no recording my most recent show, either.