HiWire

The Akai MPC One just got a lot of press at NAMM 2020. The $699 price seems to be a big part of its appeal – it looks like an easy way to get into music making without a PC workstation... https://www.akaipro.com/mpc-one

Bose will be closing all of its retail stores in North America, Europe, Japan, and Australia in a few months: https://www.theverge.com/2020/1/15/21067715/bose-shutting-down-retail-stores-layoffs-north-america-europe-japan-australia They were the closest thing to a mass-market high-end stereo manufacturer for most people. It's almost more interesting to see which regions were exempted from the shutdown – still some strength in those markets.

That's why I got the Sony UHP-H1. The current Sony UBP-X1100ES has analog outputs, but it's a bit pricey, and there are also the Panasonic DP-UB820, Panasonic DP-UB9000, and Pioneer UDP-LX500.

They are mostly the same for 1080p at this point. There aren't major differences in picture quality between the big players – Samsung, Panasonic, Sony, LG, and Oppo.

After watching that list, I feel lucky that I escaped the '90s (mostly) intact... the horror. So much crap. ?OMG Whigfield amirite? I think the lesson here is that #1 hits are not necessarily the most beloved music, simply the most popular at some given time. I get a lot fewer warm fuzzies watching '90s videos, having lived through all of it.

Thanks! They seemed like a lot of money at the time they came out, which is why I didn't buy them for years... every time I look at the HP-2, I feel like I should be listening to them every day, all day.

I bought my brother a hand grinder for Christmas – a local coffee place roasts their own coffee, so I bought him two bags to start. Personally, I've been cutting down on coffee, but I still drink it a few times a week – it's more of a treat that way: https://www.hario.jp/seihin/productdetail.php?product=MMSP-1-HSV I have a little Bialetti Moka Express stove top coffee maker that I sometimes use – definitely not for fancy coffee... it's old school, but fun to use once in a while:

Big in Germany – All German #1s of the 80s: Just as random from YouTube... a vocal critique of Elizabeth Fraser singing in Massive Attack's Teardrop (from Mezzanine)

I don't like the idea of holograms, or at least treating them like a performance. I get that they give event promoters something to sell, but, in my opinion, this is "dead music", not live music.

More Specials

Found a cool article on the Japanese "city pop" genre of the 80s (my interest is mainly derivative – video game music influenced by city pop, e.g., Sega Genesis soundtracks): https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/mbzabv/city-pop-guide-history-interview

Dream a Little Dream of Me – Kina Grannis (made famous by the Mamas and the Papas):

Happy Birthday!

RIP Syd Mead, brilliant concept artist for Blade Runner, Tron, Alien, and so many others...

Best wishes for 2020 to everyone and your loved ones! ✨✨

That is insane (-ly entertaining)... proof that life is far stranger than fiction. I can't comment about whether his house arrest in Japan was just, but talk about escaping with style.

Rock & Rule One of the comments mentions "OK, boomer" regarding Mok... must have pushed him over the edge:

The Shaggs led to Texas, which somehow led to Rock & Rule... thanks, YouTube(?). I'm enjoying the post-punk/post-rock/post-disco post-apocalypse: Bonus: the guy who put the Rock & Rule soundtrack together has been busy. Here is his reconstruction of Michael Jackson's Starlight album (from the Thriller demo tapes – no Thriller songs here):

Update: I listened to Hilary Gardner and Ehud Asherie's The Late Set on different headphones three times today, which is out of the ordinary for me. The first time was on the new Sennheiser HD 599 SE, the second was on the Alessandro MS-1, and the last was on the Grado HP-2. The HP-2 is clearly more resolving, and it has an excellent tonal balance throughout the audible frequency range. All three headphones are relatively neutral, but the HP-2 with the Deluxe pads always takes the crown with good recordings. In this case, I'd like to reiterate that the improved highs and lows are very subtle – on the Joe Grado headphones, you're not going to suddenly get bright treble and booming bass. The new pads fix the weaknesses of the headphones, but in such a complementary way that you wouldn't notice anything if these were the only pads you'd ever used. In particular, you can hear Hilary Gardner's breathing more clearly, I think I can catch Ehud humming quietly while he's playing piano on a few passages, and you can more palpably feel the body of the piano rather than just the notes (like on the other headphones). The recording setup seems relatively simple on this recording, so there's no huge soundstage or production tricks to speak of, just great performances and great music. Gardner's singing is impeccable on these classic gems – she imparts a bit of playfulness on the fast tunes and seems to effortlessly breeze through some challenging songs while giving them the emotional depth they deserve.

I don't know much about synths, but this looks cool (POLY D – not from the Jersey Shore):

In the Sun – Jane Monheit Looking forward to trying this DualDisc ? in my Sony UHP-H1. Seems to work ok in an external LaCie DVD-RW drive with the MacBook, but it's probably reverting to lossy audio (Dolby Digital 5.1), not DVD-Audio.

Long, but excellent article on William Gibson, in anticipation of his upcoming novel, Agency: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/12/16/how-william-gibson-keeps-his-science-fiction-real?verso=true

After watching the Ford vs. Ferrari movie, I looked up Ken Miles and Caroll Shelby on Wikipedia. Superformance makes Ford GT40 replicas and their Future GT Forty is an interesting mashup of the Ford GT40 MkI and the current generation Ford GT race cars:

Looks like there might be some problems with the 16" MacBook Pro speakers and displays: https://www.theverge.com/2019/12/5/20997727/apple-macbook-pro-16-inch-complaints-speaker-popping-sound-display-ghosting-keyboard

I visited the Apple Store and played with the new 16" MacBook Pro a bit. It's nice to see the hardware Esc key return and touch bar seems about the same without it. The 16" MBP is only slightly larger and heavier than the 15" one, so it shouldn't throw any shoulders out of wack. The keyboard is comfortable, but there isn't a lot of travel on the scissor-switch keys, so it's kind of a middle ground between the previous scissor-switch keyboards and the newer butterfly switch keyboards. They are quiet and well-spaced though – I doubt I'd have a problem with it as my co-workers seem to have adjusted to their butterfly-switch keyboards easily. I ran a few apps without a hiccup on macOS 10.15.1 but it's hard to do a thorough performance test in the Apple Store. I'll do a more thorough check on the display and speakers the next time I see one.