skullguise

RIP to an old High School friend Chris. He was So into music, both listening, and playing. He fronted a rock/punk band in Salem, MA for many years. Back in HS, he was heavy into the burgeoning punk scene, embracing the music and the style so very early. Yet he was one of the most kind and decent people I knew. He never drank or did drugs, he was so very tolerant of so many faults in others. And he loved his family and his dogs (he loved Sheltie's) with a vengeance. It sounds like he passed from COVID issues. (EDIT: Bacterial Pneumonia brought on by Covid. I'm pretty sure he was vaccinated too). Fuck Fuck Fuck.... My very favorite story about Chris: a couple years after graduation, I found myself in our hometown. Driving into a 5-way intersection in our downtown, I see Chris across the street. He was dressed wearing a T-Shirt from the band Discharge. I shouted out my window, "Hey, CHRIS....Discharge rules!" And he shouts back, "YO, Discharge....oh, HEY Todd...!" It was so much about the music for him. I can't seem to stop the tears....every time I think of him they start to flow. A pic from a few years ago, the 4 of us were pretty close in HS, Chris on the lower right. And then a video of him and his dog Beau.

Happy 2022! May it be so....happy!

Happy Birthday Jacob! Celebrate with a large 7-11 Decaf 😄

Oh, man....RIP John Madden.... I just heard a "doink!" in my head in his voice. Football just lost one of the very best.....

Happy Birthday!

RIP Archbishop Desmond Tutu....an incredible voice for equality in South Africa and beyond.....

Merry Ho-Ho-Ho to all that Ho!

Not Xmas music....this is a bunch of fun. Punkabilly with female vox....

Very Happy Birthdaymas!!

Oooh, didn't know about Tracey Thorn's album, will definitely listen! Not the most capable voice, but SO emotive, I love it/her. BTW, one of my favorite EBTG tracks is "Come On Home" which also has a slight Xmas theme or reference to it.

Very Happy Birthday!!

My new small obsession: Fat Cat Art. A HS FB friend followed this woman's page, she has a fat cat and is a painter (or does photoshopping well). She injects her cat into various scenes and famous paintings. Sadly, her cat (Zarathustra) just passed recently. But she's amazing and fun with her work, even some YouTube videos that had me chucking tons. I especially liked this because we used to have a fat orange cat named SOTA. Some of you may remember a multi-page thread around 2006 on H-F where SOTA was photoshopped to hell and back. He became known as The Rambo Bose Kitty, and had his 15 minutes of cat fame. Anyway, fun to browse: https://fatcatart.com/?lang=en

I was at one of my favorite audio stores Tuesday, picking up my KEF subwoofer I had ordered. The owner had me siting listening to a wonderful system (*) with a new Luxman Class A integrated (only $12k) and Aerial 7T speakers. We played some lovely things, including a fair bit of Aventine, which sounded just fantastic on the system! (*) we also talked rooms and system synergy. He gets it, in a massive way. When I was in Florida I visited a dealer there who carried McIntosh, Classe, and Focal Kanta & Paradigm Persona speakers. In systems costing anywhere from $60K to maybe $90K, I thought many aspects of my much less expensive system actually sounded better. The local dealer talked about how they were likely more theater-based and carried the expensive gear to support the local nouveau riche in Naples FL (of which there are MANY).

I knew of an ex-colleague who used to praise Notion, he had some templates he had used for things both personal and work-related. Can't remember much, but his kids' activities came to mind as one of the templates. Know nothing else about it or the others, though.....interesting article, and almost makes me want to try one out myself!

How did I miss this?!

My favorite Xmas album.....

Happy Birthday!

RIP Anne Rice....read some of her earlier books and enjoyed. Couldn't get into as much later, but she basically kicked off a major genre of Romance-Horror. She was also a fan of one of my favorite musicians, Mary Fahl, and chose a song of Mary's to use in one of her Audiobooks. Also RIP to Al Unser....used to watch racing more in the 70's and he (and his whole family) were among the best!

RIP to a majorly underrated musician....one of my High School buddies is lamenting heavily for sure, he was a big fan....

Very very sad news....RIP.

Thanks again....the rest of the day was great, had a nice fish dinner right on the water with fresh hog snapper. My neighbor tables overheard it was my BDay and all sang to me (and they weren't even dunk!). I also continued today where I had an awesome BBQ lunch, and went to my second stereo store in 2 days. It was nice to listen (only in the first) to systems north of $50K and have several aspects of both my speaker-based systems sound better!! So a happy camper is me.... 🙂

Thanks all! Having a great day so far. Karen and I on vacation in Naples FL, beautiful weather. But even more exciting for this old man is that my nephew, married to my niece, has been selected as 1 of 10 new astronauts! Two year program, and he could be in space! Fan-fucking-tastic!!

Yuck....hoping full recovery come quickly!

Happy Birthday!!