Dusty Chalk

Stomacher, Clara -- indie/alternative -- soo. fucking. perb.

Yes, and he just graduated. In fact, the start date was pretty much defined by graduation, I'm not sure if he had an actual start date until he graduated.

You know, taxidermy was creepy enough before that came along. Now we need a new word. "Ultra-creepy"? "Über-creepy"?

Finished clearing out my office. Found out they hired someone. No, I'm not going to go postal, but do any of our lawyer brethren know if that's legal? The claim is that technically, the offer was made long ago (long before the reduction in force), it's only his start date that's this week.

New place. Meh. I miss FIOS, but it's certainly sufficient.

Well, it's not a done deal -- right now, he has exactly enough work for the one programmer he has, so he either has to get a lot more business in, or something. But yeah, I'm a feelin' a good a tonight a.

Diego (current working title for the kitten) takes his own picture, photobombs self. And yes, it is a Zorro reference.

Yeah, thinking that might have been a mash-up (Clockwork Orange being the other one).

That's obviously Brent^H^H^H^H^H Conan O'Brien with loads of make-up. And possibly a prosthetic.

Agreed. Remind me to ping on you when I do that remake of Space:1999 and have you and your apartment make a cameo.

Karnivool, Themata and Sound Awake -- hard rock, very earnest, slightly proggy, my cuppa tea. Standout tracks (for me) are "Roquefort", "Simple Boy", "All I Know", "Set Fire to the Hive" and "Deadman".

Looked up, saw clouds. :\ Had an interview, it went well. It would be working for a friend, of which I am always weary, but I have known this friend for a long time, and trust him to keep me in line, so I am hopeful.

Unholy carp, look at those bass towers!

Thanks for the inadvertant heads-up, I, apparently, did not preorder, so will have to find a way to track that down.

2m is far enough away that it is less of a concern. I bought the 12L's at the beginning of the rage, and still own them. Also, I think your other conclusions aren't off. They do go slightly deeper than, for example, my former nearfield favorites, the Spendor S3/5's. They also go slightly louder -- I wouldn't listen to the Spendors other than nearfield, whereas I will listen to the Quad's elsewhere in the room, although I usually keep it just a tad too soft, as I used their volume controls, rather than a preamp, so I usually just left them alone once I had them balanced. And yes, their strength is the midrange. ~_________~ Dreamy-eyed frog is dreamy-eyed. And yes, you will crave a subwoofer for that last octave, but I haven't gotten one yet, and haven't missed it other than on techno and electronica -- I usually just stick with vocal music (Camille, etc.), classical and jazz. Even prog worked out rather well, because the bassist usually wants to be heard, so he has his tone set with a lot of upper frequency information. ("Lead" bass.)

Unholy carp, that whole film is on YouTube.

Oh, wait, never mind, I figured it out (thanks, SW) -- you mean back as in behind the speakers. Yeah, I had mine in a corner with the monitor in the middle between them -- worked fine, but doesn't help you any.

Unholy carp!

They are quite good for nearfield listening -- they were my work computer speaker rig for quite a while. Why would the back wall be a problem? Unless you have your desk situated differently than I am expecting, and/or you listen at unreasonably high volumes, it shouldn't be. That's why people listen nearfield. I didn't take care of the power-up problem. I tended to reach around back at the beginning of the day's first listening session and turn them on, and leave them on until I left (they were at work). They were driven by a DAC that didn't have an off, so left that on all the time. I know, not green, but this was work, so didn't care. I have to admit to not having heard of the silver finish before now, neither. I am not aware of limited edition finishes, but some are nicer than others. Try to find pics online. I have the ebony, and had to keep the lighting subdued ("romantic") not to show fingerprints and dust all the time. The grainier ones don't show those up as badly. Pick what you like.

Jack White, Blunderbuss -- going to rigorously (and tiggerously) go through this list, as the Maccabees' album was indeed superb. It (the whole list) has got a British slant, which is fine by me.

Happy belated, Ben! (party favor noise -- blat!)

This. Me too. Thanks for taking time out of your busy day and commiserate over beers and everything. And even though I was stressed out and not on vacation, I still wasn't an asshole. Much. I don't remember what all I had, but it was something like a Chouffe Brune? Chocolate City something (that was outstanding) -- Cerveza Nacional de la Capital? A Leffe something, and a Bell's Kalamazoo Stout. Belched and farted all the way home. Yeezh.

Love the wall pull-back at 1:05 in the Hugo video. For some reason, it put me in mind of Hitchhiker's Guide...

They Will Have Their Way -- The Songs of Tim & Neil Finn -- this is all kinds of wonderful. Doesn't hurt that I'm terribly fond of the source material. A lot of the songs are done in the what I call Lilith Fair style, but there are some standouts -- Lisa Miller's version of "I Hope I Never" is a late-night strum and vibrato fest that brings to mind Angelo Badalamenti's work on Twin Peaks with Julee Cruise. There are some recognizable names on here, too -- Natalie Imbruglia, Sarah Blasko, stellar*, et al. Correction: it's not all Lilith Fair style. They must have thrown all the female singer songwriters at the beginning.

What's up with West Virginia? Also, very cool. Well, not to anyone who has been affected, but from a purely scientific perspective...nice data representation.