postjack

definitely dying. here is a video from Coventry: at about 50 seconds in, he pulls out what is unmistakably a bag of heroin and puts it up to his nose, right there on stage. fast forward to 2:40, and he is completely nodding. kids: don't fucking do opiates.

Oh, and I was supposed to catch Morrissey in Atlanta this Saturday, but as I was waiting at the Atlanta airport for my GF and her friend who drove six hours from Mobile to come and pick me up, I got an email from my iPhone informing me the show was cancelled. Apparently the Moz lost his voice at the Myrtle Beach show the night previous. Totally sucks. BUT, we had a hotel room in Atlanta, and they had driven all that way, so we consulted the almighty iPhone. While eating the aforementioned delicious Vortex burger, I used the Jambase iPhone app to find out what other live music was going on that night. Saw some band called The Annuals were playing at the Earl. We all liked their influences as described on the iPhone, so I hopped onto the browser and bought three tickets. Then we used the map function to get us to the venue, where we had a great time. I mean, how badass is the iPhone? The Annuals were a bit too spunky for my tastes, but their 21 year old front man is obviously a very talented songwriter, and good things may still come out of this band. The real stars were the openers, first a cool (and hot) chick named Jessica Lea Mayfield, who had a bluesy country dark Mazzy Star thing going on. Her band was fantastic, and consisted of her huge beastly brother on the biggest stand up bass I've ever seen, a guitarist who looked EXACTLY like Bullock from Deadwood, and a completely hot blonde drummer, like completely hot. The other band were called What Laura Says, and they have this great Queen/Beatles + Black Keys thing going on. I really liked them, and bought their CD and a 7" single from their manager Tony, who was a super nice dude. The show was followed by a meal at R Thomas, Atlanta's 24 hour "health food" restaraunt, which was really awesome. So a trip that could have been a disaster turned into a lot of fun. Next: Ryan Adams and The FUCKING CARDINALS next Thursday right here in Mobile, then North Mississippi Allstars with Hill Country Revue, again in Mobile, the following Saturday.

Totally. Seriously I was able to get up with two really old friends I hadn't seen in some time, and we sat next to each other and had a ball. The below two pictures say it all. First is from Hampton, second is from Coventry. For non Phish fans, Coventry was Phish's "final" concert in 2004, which I was also at, and which was the worst concert experience of my life, and Hampton was their big reunion run this past weekend: I'm really happy for Trey.

that looks great, i wish listed it, thanks. Pandora's Star has been sitting in my to-read pile for some time. Any good?

good thread, I'm thinking of investing in an iron myself. I want to try swapping out some resistors on the ol' bugle.

Right on.

I asked a guy over at SH who owns both the 22L (not 12L, same family though) and MMG to compare the two, and he said the biggest difference was the MMG's huge soundstage. He opted to keep the MMG.

Phish 3/6/09 Hampton, VA I haven't seen them but several times, but it was the best phish I've ever seen. incredible set list, super tight playing, positive crowd, unreal energy. I'm happy I was there. Tonight: Morrissey, Atlanta, Variety Playhouse. Can't wait to have a huge messy cheeeeebugga from Vortex!

Incredibad - The Lonely Island "you can't stop me motherfucker cause i'm on a boat"

totally won't be worth a grand, but I'm ignoring opportunity cost. though the idea of buying danny's sw8 gear is alluring.

ha, no way.

yeah the Fridays are insane now. $1000+ thanks Mike, I'm pretty excited.

finally got my ticket for Phish this Friday.

cool!

all for your birthday buddy!

thats what i like bout them high school girls...

actually an opamp is a raisin, which can't be discrete, vis a vis, ergo, an oxymoron.

happy birthday nate! awesome!

Sweet. I'm waiting for Dance to come out this Fall, then I'll read Dance and Feast back to back. I might need to reread Storm to refresh my memory, or maybe find a summary of the series online I can read through. I just finished Neal Stephenson's Confusion, and can't see any reason not to go right on to System of the World. I think Stephenson might be the king of modern speculative fiction, a title I previously attributed to Jeff Vandermeer.

ooh i want one. i always had a suspicion it would be smaller then it appears, glad to hear it is substantial.

New guy who didn't read the headcase welcome PM but still seems like an ok guy to me but I'm the resident HC softie: yes vinyl is where most of my music money goes. I'm of course honeymooning a bit with my new piece of gear, but I honestly can't name a part of the music it doesn't improve. Last night I was up way later then I'm used to because I couldn't stop playing my favorite records. If I had to choose one word to sum up what the RSR and record weight do, it would be precision. Everything is more precise, everything is in its right place. What I noticed immediately was the improvement in bass tightness, which was so clear that I at first thought the RSR was tilting everything to towards the lower frequencies, but then the new clarity in the midrange became obvious, as well as an expansion of the soundstage in all directions. No pun intended, but its like the grip the ring keeps on the vinyl also keeps a grip on all the instruments; again, precision. Before I heard the ring's effect I would have thought precision to mean dullness or even dry neutrality, but now I hear the awesome musicality this precision brings. I know the above reads like I've written an ad for the damn thing, but I'm just really surprised at what a difference it's made. I think if my turntable were more expensive, and already had a ton of tricks up its sleeve to increase mass and somehow make the effective weight of the vinyl more, the difference would be more subtle, but with the humble 1200 (which I'm not dissing, it has long been the favorite part of my system, but it is a true budget turntable) its like I'm listening to a new (and improved) turntable.

Rudolf Bruil's Universal Record Stabilizing Ring with center weight. I've wanted one of these for almost two years now. Awesome.

thrash metal and phish.

the stereo shift to the right is most definitely because of the opening, as it's mostly in the bass region. oh and that's my man purse. I promise it's more masculine in person.

Here's some truly terrible flash pictures I just snapped: Pardon the mess. Also it should be noted this is my larger den, not the 10x13 room originally referred to in the OP. Couple of points: -When I'm listening I close all the curtains, and sometimes put a blanket over the TV and mirror on the wall. This drastically reduces treble energy. -Having the footstool in front of me makes a difference in the imaging. Sometimes I leave it there when I just want my feet up, but when I move it the difference is clear. -The speakers and listening chair are setup according to the Diament 1/3rds method. It works perfectly. -The one problem I have is the soundstage tends to shift to the right, which can be quite annoying if I let it bother me. I sometimes use balance controls to correct this, but the extent to which it bothers me is song dependent. -I also finally dragged the SVS sub into this room. It completes me. Seriously, I just can't get the kind of bass I want out of 8" woofers. I'm a sub guy for life. The sweet thing is, now that my listening position and speaker position have been optimized, bass is truly almost completely non-directional. Even though the sub is behind me and to the left, 95% of the time the bass sounds like it is coming from the speakers.