Dusty Chalk

I'll be in my bunk. Leaving my stress behind.

Pfff. I wish.

"Separate Lives" -- it is the worst of the 80's ballads -- pure evil...quite possibly more evil than Creed:

Oh yeah, there's that too.

Watched Castle last night over wireless -- not too shabby as long as I don't put my glasses on. Also, nice Firefly reference: His Mom: You've never heard of Serenity? Castle: (blank look) Also, they're going to be fucking finally putting the moves on each other by the end of the next episode, or you can call me mud. Woo. Fucking. Hoo. I'll be able to watch the first episode of the second season any day now (while the rest of the world is already up to ep. 5...fucking Hulu).

Does anyone else read MBA as Mac Book Amateur (i.E. non-Pro)...I mean, I know it means Air, but every once in a while...

One ticket to Hilary Hahn.

Sign language is, indeed, hilarious.

Fuck yeah. Still wish they had squoze it into the 15", though. Did they ever have a 1200 MBP before?

Agreed...and Genesis drummer Phil Collins and early Genesis singing Phil Collins are awesome as well. White Nights Phil Collins can get castrated, though. And ragging-on-Steve-Hackett Phil Collins can go take a flying fuck without a parachute nor a partner.

But New Order is so varietous -- are we talking Blue Monday New Order, Age of Consent New Order, Elegia New Order, or...? Rhetorical question, I'll go and listen to it myself. I like Cut/Copy, but I don't have that one, I don't think.

Oh Holy Shit, Strathmore is practically walking distance (alright, not really -- more like two miles)...I'm going if I don't have any conflicts. I'll have to bring my SACD's. Thanks! I probably would not have looked it up myself in time.

I lollered. I'm going to have to post that one at the office.

That's some nice wood. (wiggles eyebrows)

I, too, am toasting Naaman's safe return with a beer (Smuttynose pumpkin ale).

Hurray!

(performs bad imitation) [phil]Wooo-oooah![/phil]

Uninterestingly, I, too, am listening to The Klezmatics' Jews with Horns.

Nailed it in one. I think that if anyone can pave the way for higher resolution format, it'll be Apple. So I can't personally wait. But I agree that many (especially the top sellers) won't know what to do with it, and it won't be worth the increased resolution. But I bet the Porcupine Tree, Opeth, and King Crimson downloads will sound awesome.

It's for everything -- unlike you, I have a very compact space, and also very little need for speaker listening. So largely, it'll be for those few times I don't feel like putting headphones on, video when I want surround, and audio when I want surround (I do want to get around to hearing the Katatonia disk, the King Crimson disks, and the Porcupine Tree disks in full surround). In other words, it's for those few times when I want speakers over headphones, and when I want to listen to surround. Why no center channel? Because I don't feel the need. I also feel it solves a couple problems. I followed the professional side of surround for a while, and there just never seemed to come to any consensus. Some of them mix the center channel as a fully separate channel, some of them mix a little bit into the front lefts and rights, and some of them mix quite a bit into the front lefts and rights. If you "phantom" the center channel, these all get "equalized" (in the non-frequency sense), which actually is a better solution, IMHO. There's also the height positioning issue -- you can't get it at the same height as the front lefts and rights without some sort of compromise. Phantoming solves that problem, too. These would be fine for non-video audio, but since I do intend to also do video... And invariably many people get different center channels than their fronts, and you can then never quite match the voice. That wouldn't be an issue with you or me, obviously, since sound is sufficiently important that we wouldn't make that compromise, but...you'd be surprised. And then there's amping -- do you know that the only difference between most players and a pre/pro is level control? You can usually do all the rerouting including phantoming and the whole "large"/"small" (include sub frequencies/don't include sub frequencies) on most players? So then you would only need two stereo amps (and if you didn't have level control, two stereo preamps), which are fairly easy to match. I know it sounds kludgy when I say it like that, but I really don't see the point in the decoding circuitry being in both the player and the pre/pro or receiver. You end up never using the stuff in the player, most of the time. In which case one should just have gotten a BDP-80. Which actually is another option -- just a BDP-80 and a receiver for speaker/surround listening, BDP-95 for headphones, and take the BDP-83SE to the office.

Propagandhi, Supporting Caste -- borderline emo vocals, but the music rocks. Hard. Not that familiar with their other material, but from what I recall, this might be the best thing they've ever done.

(makes non-English sounds of mesmerization and envy) That is almost exactly the system I intend to put together. Only difference being I intend to go either 4.1 (4 stradas and a sub) or 4.2 (2 Stradas and 2 Reference 3.5's). I do thoroughly approve.

You know, there is such a thing as having it too good. I think you need a hobby. Besides golf.

Happy Birthday, Cognoscenti!

I am envious. I really need to follow her concert schedule so that I can see her live.