Hopstretch

Well, didn't buy. Was given, by my loved ones. A bone-handled Laguiole waiters corkscrew and one of those giant Honeywell air purifiers. So I guess I drink a fair bit of wine and ... fart a lot? Bought my wife an iPod touch. She spent a half hour playing with it and delivered this review: "God I hate my Blackberry now." And so the groundwork was laid for the advent of the iSlate.

Thanks Doug. Have to confess I was previously unfamiliar with the soulful Swiss bluegrass stylings of Herr Hank Shizzoe. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DILih9zBYYA

Whoa! Happy happy!

Dirty Projectors -- Bitte Orca Vinyl. Another easy Best Of. Not that you give a fuck what I think.

Steely Dan -- Aja Vinyl. Got demn thet sounds gut.

Self-hating nerd? Who knows. Merry Smegmas anyway.

Everyone has one super-special Christmas wish!

Toe for presidents. Of awesome. Built To Spill -- There Is No Enemy Vinyl. Also on my personal "Best of 09" list.

Apple Store, here I cooooome!

Maybe it'll come with a free pony, too.

Do not fret. The item in question was acquired as part of a barter exchange. Net cost to me -- zero dollars. The postage was your present. I got mine yesterday. Thanks! It is also under the tree.

Happy Birthday. So close!

Yeah, Justin has said a few times that he wants to keep offering a range of amps, not just portables, but that he will have to find a way to produce the desktop models more efficiently given how much of his time is now being sunk into the Pico end of the range. I just don't think he's figured out exactly how he's going to do that yet.

Yeah, those suck. Fried termites are quite tasty though if you can get over the yick factor. What were we talking about again? Oh yeah, snow. It tastes like cold. You can shoot it!

Eurythmics -- Revenge

Whoops, Reks never got the memo. Um, that was the neighbor's son's car though, dude.

How do you fuck up almost every single major component of a relatively new turntable all at once? AudiogoN ForSale: Clearaudio performance

Martin Sexton -- Camp Holiday And very camp it is too!

Also the only way the rest of the movie makes any sense at all. What a fucking travesty the "studio" ending was.

Muffins. Or maybe cookies.

Pixies -- Come On Pilgrim

I had some shredded pork stomach with hot chili oil yesterday. It did something rather similar to my own stomach today.

Yay! If nothing else, it can always be used to raise your monitor another inch or so.

I acknowledge my prior error. Flats are correct on the HP1. I seek forgiveness. Clarity flows from many, many re-listens to toe's "Our Next Movement" -- which just has an absolutely ridiculous amount of deep bass, fast bass and funky bass all going on at once. Switching back and forth with HD800s, there is no slack or flop or murk in the HP1-with-flats presentation. The experience is different -- with the Grados shaking your brain around inside your skull while the Senns flap your auricles from the outside -- but to me they are both absolutely "right". Supplemental observation. Anyone who says HD800s are seriously bass-shy is a heartard.