HiWire

I'm listening to the Pretenders' first album (1979) on CD, apparently pressed in Germany, never remastered (since it was transferred to digital), and it sounds fantastic. You have to turn the volume up a bit more (double the Faith No More album), but it's clean, spacious, and dynamic. Remasters seem to be doing more harm than good... I'm not sure if the Mo-Fi SACDs of the Pretenders' albums are better (maybe just different) than this old disc. It's funny that people think the Pretenders are punk... they look punk, but their music sounds like pop to me, with a bit of an edge.

Faith No More – The Real Thing A good album, but remastered loud and probably right to the distortion limit. Enjoyable, but pull back on the volume a bit as it is fatiguing with headphones. Here's a brief discussion of the remasters: https://www.popmatters.com/194715-faith-no-more-the-real-thing-and-angel-dust-reissues-2495516233.html I also have the Mo-Fi recording of Angel Dust, which sounds excellent.

Father Ted https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2015/apr/20/father-ted-legacy-20-years-on-up-with-this-sort-of-thing

The Crucifucks

Steely Dan – Can't Buy A Thrill

They hold up incredibly well. The passage of time has not diminished the power of his prose. Mona Lisa Overdrive is next. I don't remember reading the books together all at once. I've owned them for years, but reading them again as an adult (living in the future) seems to be different than when I read them as a sheltered teenager. For one thing, I'm actually bothering to look up every one of the words I don't understand this time – I admire Gibson's creativity and the breadth of his interests and vocabulary. I've read Neuromancer many times over the years, but I've only read the others once or twice. William Gibson's cyberpunk novels changed my life. I've been looking back at the cyberpunk era (triggered by the upcoming launch of the Cyberpunk 2077 game, I think) and few of his contemporaries' works can compare to Gibson's trilogy. I didn't even consider the books a trilogy (and the publisher has never numbered them as such), but the linkages are more apparent when you read them back to back. I've always found the covers for Mona Lisa Overdrive to be cheesy – I found this beautiful image on Google (art by Vladimir Manyukhin):

Count Zero by William Gibson He mentions ray tracing on page 218 and Nvidia has just gotten around to doing it in realtime... the book was published in 1986. A wild ride.

Unkle – Psyence Fiction Squarepusher – Hard Normal Daddy

Will check them out.

'80s Nite! I'm looking forward to getting the Police's Synchronicity, but I have to pace myself... SACDs are getting rarer and more expensive as time goes by.

The Police – Regatta de Blanc (SACD)

That's a great album. It's sitting on my desk right now!

The Collector's Edition (2009) CD is definitely an improvement on the original recording, both in sound quality and breadth of content. I always felt the original was too short... the Collector's Edition is hard to find now. It took a few months to find this one, and I had to play it as soon as I got it!

Vintage Computer-Generated Imagery:

Thomas Dolby – The Flat Earth (Collector's Edition)

The black and white seasons are now in the public domain: It was cancelled in the Rural Purge: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rural_purge But I think the success of the Dukes of Hazzard changed their minds... The early 60s had a strange idea of family entertainment. Here's Dennis Hopper as a beatnik:

Saint Etienne's cover of Neil Young's Only Love Can Break Your Heart popped into my head this morning and Wikipedia did the rest. I'm putting Saint Etienne and OMD's albums on order – I'm glad that they've been reissued and that they're still available.

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark – Dazzle Ships Saint Etienne – Foxbase Alpha

Hilary Gardner & Ehud Asherie – The Late Set

Happy Birthday!

Thanks, guys! I can't wait for the work day to end.

Thanks!

I use Sophos Home and Malwarebytes. Both are free and relatively effective.

Chromeo – Head Over Heels Depeche Mode – Music for the Masses

I've been using the Sennheiser HD1 In-Ear wired headphones on public transit... under $100. The stock ear tips are silicone and isolate moderately, but I immediately upgraded to Comply tips. I just tried them with moderate music volume and I can't hear anything with ambient air conditioning blowing. A coworker also strongly recommended the 1More Triple Driver headphones to me. They don't go in that deep, but people seem to like them and they come with a variety of tips.