Hopstretch

Have had water from below before, not yet from above. Either way, what a giant pain. Sorry!

OK, now it sounds good. VTA was waaaay off. Fixed that and, boom, there's the weight and warmth. Aimee Mann is busy berating my useless male ass -- and I love it!

Impressionistic view of new cart and arm in action. It sounds ... very different. I'm going to have to get used to this flavor before making a sober (ha!) assessment.

Set up a new tonearm, cart and phono stage. Sweated bullets, but didn't lunch anything.

It's not worth it unless you use a computer as your primary source. I really like the sound, though others here have been less impressed. But from a utility perspective, you'd be far better off buying a used C5xe if you want to try an Ayre and still mostly spin CDs.

Morrissey -- Swords Really enjoying this. It's odd, on average the songs are probably weaker lyrically than most of his recent output but they're also more engaging musically because he actually seems to be having fun.

Pixies -- Doolittle MoFi LP

Mine went off to Scotland today after the postal clerk spent 15 minutes fighting the new automated customs form on his PC, while the increasingly long line muttered and shifted impatiently behind me. I decided not to tell him about the invasive beetles as I figured that would just draw the proceeding out even further.

Elvis Costello -- My Aim Is True Nice!

Before next winter!

Oh well, I won't be shoveling snow for a couple of years anyway. Cape Town's climate is pretty much a carbon copy of San Francisco, albeit about 11F warmer on average. Lots of sunshine, lots of wind, lots of rain in the winter. Sure there's no shortage of crappy drivers, either.

Feist -- The Reminder

"Better Off Ted" I swear my wife watches this just to get management tips from Veronica. But it is damn funny.

El Perro Del Mar -- Love Is Not Pop

Thickskin Union Suit | Immersion Research 2009

Looks like the kids are coming down with the flu. Blah. The Netflix streaming servers are about to be hit hard.

Ryan Adams -- Heartbreaker

Just did our driveway myself. Nothing encourages you to get out there and get it done now like knowing the rain is on the way to turn it all into wet cement.

You're welcome. I have a sheep doing roofing over at my house. Come and drop in! We'll put on Zeppelin, and eat cheddar cheese.

Rykarda Parasol -- Our Hearts First Meet

No good deed goes unpunished. Shall we have an over/under on the first "Where the fuck is my Slim" post?

Not that I'm telling you cosmopolitan headphone fanciers anything new, but the HP-1000s are pretty darn sweet. I'd only heard them before under meet conditions off of other people's rigs. Yay impulse buys!

Voltron game in the app store.

Not the fun kind of moronity, sadly. But I've cheered up again anyway, because the UPS man bought me some fonky new phones and a box of beer.

Somebody punch me in the face, please. I am SUCH a maroon.