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It still cracks me up that a former AMERICAN IDOL finalist-- and a gorgeous one at that -- someone you would think would totally embrace all that is popular -- would so fully immerse herself into the world of prog. But GODDAMN, do they make great music. I am so excited for the forthcoming album.

DJTJ's Twitter got hax0red. The tell was that he was making more sense than usual.

Want to Enjoy Music More? Stop Streaming It. Build a real music collection. Reintroduce intimacy to the songs you care about. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/19/magazine/music-not-streaming.html?unlocked_article_code=TtA88rDFywnGU7A_zghf62EYONr1XhmJZtKhyfZnNHFc6NHJjFO_O9bEXfyqAPGFTckToezToo9axpF4dOJMLmNl19DuG_xPO6SIoJkWNRHyrqs6-7HbiiqEIULK5QCjFoO6vM8zrJo7ygWuxW-aNzTc6biJwBp8Ct4bUsqOWaZPvKqvZYc2nzPvjtTKjp9ugl5U9SE3krmlfoZWO6kr9PvgDncjyVSV32yH_P9NOuUh9j6Z04FPQEFUuhf3UO2ElgrRdHCNINX5au5Zg1Z1KL_MKXrUxuK668ty5-tWBLQ2ojpQzoIwwvr4fGzxZwIBChu025CkDTdBX73X7Q7-&smid=url-share

Celebrants Nickel Creek 2023 https://album.link/i/1655960194 Example: Too many great tunes to pick which one to share. This one highlights Sara. Oh what the hell.... And this one highlights Chris: I need to tweak my TIDAL favorites list a bit so I don't miss these releases (from March! - I have missed 5+ months of this music in my life). At first I was not a big fan of the production style of this album until I got into the meat of it and it became very clear that they knew what they were doing, the dynamics came alive and I was hooked on every tune. I know that I should expect this from a MacArthur Fellowship 'Genius Grant' award winner.

Placing a turntable on top of a subwoofer is certainly a novel idea.

I had the opportunity to handle some Pateks, when I had the Chopard in to have the strap replaced (gold makes me nervous). In hand there is nothing between the Chopard LUC and a Calatrava. Having said that, next time I feel like throwing down a house down payment I might get a Golden Ellipse for me and a Gondolo for Heather, as it’s a gorgeous pairing, and isn’t too “cutesy,” I think. Maybe for our tenth wedding anniversary (gotta get married first!).

Live album from the Rumors tour in '77. Pretty solid! I think Lindsay's guitar and Mic's drums sound great. The complex vocal harmonies do suffer a bit in a live setting though. Chris McVie's voice can get lost in the mix at times. https://music.apple.com/us/album/rumours-live/1696829962

Let's talk about exotic lenses. What a cute kitty. Taken with a Sony full frame body and a Meyer Optik Diaplan 100mm F/2.8. The Diaplan was sold as a projection lens, so it lacks an aperture. It's nearly identical to the Meyer Trioplan 100mm F/2.8, which is very expensive cult lens. The appeal of both is the "soap bubble" bokeh they produce. I am not convinced. Historically, Japanese photographers (the obsessive nuts who coined the term "bokeh") look down on strong rings on OOF highlights. They call that "nisen bokeh" and view it as a bad thing. I tend to agree with them. The Trioplan is a meh lens that's soft and not terribly contrasty wide open, and only okay once stopped down. There are far cheaper lenses with modern build quality available for a fraction of a price. To wit: There's a clean Trioplan 100mm F/2.8 on the 'bay right now, with its original carrying case (also clean). Seller wants $850. Bro, you can buy a real lens for that kind of money. Goddamn vidiots have driven up the price of old manuals to insane levels. [Knuckles, please not another vidiot rant.] Also on the 'bay is a completely new TTartisan 100mm F2.8 in M42 mount for $155 shipped. Don't be too surprised if I buy one of those in a couple months. On the other end of the spectrum: Mercedes car show. Taken with a full frame Sony body and their 14mm F/1.8G. That is a $1500 lens, and dare I say it a bargain for what it is. I'm not super familiar with Sony bodies, but their lens lineup is pretty spectacular. They make a 135mm F/1.8 that's superior to the legendary Canon 135mm F/2L. It's sharper and has (on paper) better color transmission. Snow in Yakitori Alley by Ben Torode on Flickr. Sony 135mm F/1.8 wide open. They also make a number of killer 35mm primes (my favorite focal length) including a $1200ish F/1.4, a significantly cheaper 35mm F1.8FE, and a Zeiss designed 35mm F/2.8 Sonnar. Sony 35mm F/1.8, wide open by Steven Kramer on Flickr. Alfa Romeo in Vancouver, taken with a Sony body and 35mm F/2.8 Sonnar, stopped down a bit. Bonus: Taken with the Sony FE 16-35mm F2.8 GM at the wide end. Giving the Canon 16-35mm F/2.8L a run for its money. This is an audio snob site (at least on paper), and Sony's (to quote Kevin Gilmore) wireless drive-by-wire management is the stuff of legend. With that said, they are also an enormous company, and utterly dwarf Canon and especially diminutive Nikon. When they, you know, actually bother with their products they punch so hard it's scary.

And then this just showed up.. - yay

Heartbeat City (2016 Remaster) The Cars 1984 https://album.link/i/1088528654 Example: So I think in the 80s I was really listening to this album, but I was staring at the Candy-O Album Cover (so that stuck in my head). I really liked almost all of these songs. Even found myself singing along to Drive.

It looks like they got the fire out. Nobody hurt, no loss of property. My Mother may even be able to sleep in her own bed tonight. I'm hopeful this was the final hit, but still half way expecting a call between now and Tuesday, about an earthquake, lotus swarm or the Black Plague.

Huge congrat again Nate! Thanks for making the effort every year.

Sorry for the lack of updates over the weekend, the wifi at the house could basically support one device at a time. Short version, the ride was great. Continue on for TLDR... The day started with overcast skies, temps in the mid 70s which was pretty ideal. We met Kelly (left above) and Edie (KBF Executive Director) at the starting line for a quick pick after the main pack rolled out around 7:30. We weren't particularly worried about riding with any other groups/folks. The first 25 miles or so passed without much incident, one guy got a flat which was quickly changed with a little help from the ride support crew and then the five of us riding the 100 split off to take the longer way home. Through the next 20 miles temps and the weather continued to be on our side. As we passed through 50 miles the sun came out with a vengeance. What had been simply a warm, very humid day turned into a hot and steamy one fast. But sunscreen was applied and much fluid consumed (I think I drank between 8-10 22oz bottles on the day) and with the exception of my friend Jim who cramped and had to call in the sag wagon at 85 miles, we all survived in tolerable shape. Much fun was had, much money was raised. Our little 9 person team ended up raising a bit over $25k and the event topped the million dollar mark on the day of the ride. I spent a significant amount of time on the front along with my friend Gus as we'd both logged considerably more training miles than the others. All in all, I just can't say thank you to all of you that continue to support me and this event. The foundation does some truly amazing work and changes lives every time that they do.

It is hard to understand what fault lies with the drivers, what with the car, and what with the strategy, but things haven't been going great lately. https://www.espn.com/f1/story/_/id/37994260/daniel-ricciardo-back-f1-alphatauri-nyck-de-vries-out Brent must have had a biscuit today because that clown Ricciardo is back.

My second Cousin just got her and her husband. No time to hook up the trailer. The fire is too close. The trailer is insured anyway. Everyone is being evacuated to the towns civic center. But my Cousin is headed down to get them and take them to her second house 10 miles away. Crazy shit!

I've posted recently about my blind Mother's motorhome repossession with 2 days notice. Her health struggles. And the very recent understanding that she can't do it on her own anymore. So my Brother and his wife are due to arrive Sunday. They'll most likely be on the road to AZ Tuesday morning. 30 minutes ago I got a call from my sainted Cousin Rene. As it happens she just heard on the radio that there's a large brush fire, and it's headed straight for my Mother's RV park, and her newly purchased trailer (scheduled to go to storage Monday). Thankfully she immediately called her son ( my 2nd Cousin) and he is on his way with his truck and ball hitch, to get my Mother and that trailer out of harms way. She called my Mom, asked her if anyone had knocked on their door to inform them? She said that they just did, but she didn't know what she was going to do. Rene told her that Jr. and 3 friends are on their way and 10 minutes out. How much is this elderly woman going to have to endure before getting the hell out of there? Again, thank God for my Cousin! This has to be a sign that leaving is the right thing!

I found out today that a close friend from Chattanooga, Jimmy Burgess, passed away on August 16th. I met him through Mensa, but he was a bit atypical of the people I normally come across. He had more stories than almost anyone I've come across, including being a pit boss at Harrah's, carrying duffle bags of cash to deposit at a bank after a big day at Ringling Brothers, stationed in Hawaii during a stint with military intelligence, and he'd always join me after meetings for the after party, which sometimes involved a few, but often involved the two of us going somewhere and drinking/talking for hours. Most of the time I've known him, though, he was working at a recycling center. He'd often have people drop stuff off which was still in good working order, so he wound up liberating it from a sad fate. He lived across from my grandmother's house, and I had a ~cousin who lived next to him and found out they would barter/trade all kinds of things. There was a time we were at a dinner and I'd mentioned that my receiver had a channel die earlier that week. At the end he was like "follow me to my car, I have something for you." (No, Steve, not that.) He had a 1200$ Denon receiver that was pre-HDMI, so it was being tossed. The audio section, however, worked flawlessly, and continued to power my Rega Jura speakers in TN until I moved out. Last year, I had a friend who had been abused by her then-BF with whom she lived. She didn't have anywhere to go, so I called up my buddy Jimmy and he got ready and went and rescued her from a bad situation, took her out to eat, talked and drank for hours, then got her set up in a hotel for a couple days. Today, she's doing great, has an amazing new job where she's even been able to pay for her mom to get two surgeries she's needed. When I moved out of TN, my house had been a wreck, and all the packing/boxing up/getting rid of stuff that was supposed to be done by the kids' mom hadn't been started. We spent hours and hours while I was there for 4 days working on it, and he kept going over and taking care of anything that needed to be done over the next month while I was 2500 miles away. He was a good friend, and I'm so glad we got to hang out in July when I went to Chattanooga to visit, just didn't realize it was going to be the last time I saw him. RIP, Jimmy. 1943-2023

We put Sophie down today. She’s had congestive heart failure for over a year and had been doing ok with meds. However, she got really bad over the last few days - gained a lot of fluid weight, had several seizures, and was coughing much more than normal. We went to the vet and they said she had less than two weeks. We couldn’t let her suffer anymore. I miss her so much. She was the best dog ever. IMG_3005.mov IMG_3386.mov