Dusty Chalk

Yeah, I actually learned of her through Feed/Deadline/Blackout (the Newsflesh trilogy), and from there to the October Daye stuff. And yeah, I'm not saying you have to read them all. I cycle through different things -- Hangman's Daughter and Tim Powers on my kindle, October Daye and Dresden Files in paperback, and in both cases, I try to alternate every other book from one of my series to a standalone. I'm just expressing my love for both those serieses.

Hooray! (celebrates) She herself would probably consider that a compliment. She has taken many things from him, but then she adds her own take on them. She likes to kill characters, but it's not like Whedon kills characters (not when I heard him explain why he kills characters in his talk at the last Comic Con), and as you say, this one is campier than I think even Whedon would go (I hear the mice in the voices of the Flushed Away slugs). I, on the other hand, am avidly reading this: ...and am enjoying as much it as every other October Daye novel. She really knows how to amp up the action with every book, and

That's a bug (that it won't show negative elevations).

Ian Boddy, pretty much all day. Unfortunately, it's not as melodic as what I heard on the iNDEX04 sampler, but it was still pretty good ambient.

No, I think it's a function of the ratio of dark matter to dark energy.

Is US$550 a good price for a 1TB internal SSD? (It's only $30 off, so that's a sincere question -- I would have thought that $580 was a decent enough price for 1TB.)

#OmNomNomNomNom

I'm sorry to laugh at the destruction of your property, but that was damn funny.

Dat biscuit.

iNDEX04 -- a collection of really pretty instrumental synthesizer music feat. Ian Boddy -- free download for now (inc. FLAC)

Only for having thought of it. Now that they've thought of it, it makes a kind of sense.

Jeff -- Dave says to ask for Vince at Crossroads

Noted. I've already got the Fat50s/CS 69/SSL5 combo, but ... I'm not done yet, neither. Was also told to check out Lollars.

Completely agree with the "sounds like the player" comment (not sure about the 3DD or Creed comment -- that sounded disparaging without meaning to, to someone who doesn't want to sound like Creed...and it also contradicts the "sounds like the player" comment) -- I was working on my "Gilmour clone" guitar, but then I realized that Gilmour would sound like Gilmour practically no matter what you hand him. (PS I've been listening to a lot of Altered Bridge lately, until I realized who they sounded like...so I kind of know what you're talking about, but that's also a function of the amp and effects you use.) That makes sense. And I should have understood that, as most of the guitars I got before I started hanging out with Dave are...uh...very focusedly weird. But sometimes I want some traditional sounds, too, so I got a mexistrat.

For amp, just get a Rivera Clubster -- my friend has a wall of amps, including the classic Marshall sound and the classic tweed sound and a lot in between -- and he gigs entirely (I think exclusively) with the Rivera Clubster. It has the best combination of clean and overdriven tones. How can you say that? The one I saw had so many different combinations, it was just a matter of fine tuning it to the character you want. Do they not all do that?

PRS has an annual event called PRS Experience around September. My friend Dave (the Gunsmoke and Cheap Perfume guy) goes every year, he just forgot to tell me this year, even though he knew I was escalating my interest in all things electric stringed instruments. We're definitely going next year, you should come also, and bring your checkbook. They usually save their absolute best stock for that event, as do all the vendors.

These are some very powerful a cappella singers, and it's a very nice arrangement approved by Oh Land herself:

Yeah, definitely, when he gets to electrics.

I concur completely.

I know nothing about acoustics, but after reading an article back in the ...80's? ...I don't think I'd ever be interested in a standard bodied acoustic, I'd go for the round-backed style that Ovation pioneered back then.