Twittering Machines

Eric Dolphy
Out There

Another 1960 gem. Dolphy’s 2nd release as leader features him on alto sax, flute, clarinet and bass clarinet, Ron Carter on cello, George Duvivier on bass and Roy Haynes on drums. The original liner notes by Ralph Berton (April 1969) make a few references to surrealism which helps to explain the original cover art with Man Ray’s metronome Object to be Destroyed in a Daliesque landscape. I don’t think the surrealist tag stuck over time but I can kinda see the impulse.

An altogether beautiful record.

From LaCie, an external hard drive (500GB or a terabyte) and a USB hub. Designed by Ora-Ïto.

A hi-fi playing music is its own real thing (not like Coke, more like Art). If you hold it up to a kind of real thing that it isn’t (a violin or worse still a violin and a piano), hi-fi is doomed to fail (or should I say fall?). The idea that the pursuit of reproduction is to perfectly mimic “reality” to the point of inducing a kind of hallucination in the spectator was abandoned by the other Arts a century or two ago. Why do audiophiles hold onto this notion so dearly? I think it has something to do with guilt but I can’t be sure. Makes no sense to me. Or to put it another way, striving to fool myself never seemed prudent.

“What you got back home, little sister, to play your fuzzy warbles on? I bet you got, say, pitiful, portable picnic players. Come with uncle and hear all proper! Hear angels’ trumpets and devils’ trombones. You are invited! “

JD was correct! I searched and found this picture of Alex and his Hydraulic Reference Transcriptor.

Krishnamurti with his Bang & Olfsen turntable and receiver.

Steve Jobs in 1982, with a Michelle Gyrodec ‘table, and a pair of Acoustat Model 2s. From Sonic Flare.

“Even my wife approved of the ______’s looks”

“Even my wife heard the difference.”

“Even my wife preferred the ______”

“Even my wife noticed.”

“Even my wife said ‘Honey can we keep these?’”

“Even my wife was sad to see the ____ leave.”

This is just so cool looking. I think it’s a Stax:

The new BA OTL (big ass output transformerless) amplifiers from Ether Audio boast nearly 200 Watts of powerful power. With enough juice to drive nearly any 90+db loudspeaker to unrealistic leves, the Big Ass amps do away with the complexity and distortion inherent in the output transformer. “This is a real man’s tube amp.” exclaims Bag Ass’s designer Rolf Lundgren. “And you can expect 1,500+ hours on the power tubes as long you maintain proper bias.” While the manual bias procedure is estimated at 1,000 hours+, “that still leaves many hours for musical enjoyment” Lundgren boasts.

A Golden Eared, Blue Eye’d, Mojofi-in winner say the experts!

The oldest living audio reviewer, Sven Frankly died today, age 110. While specializing in Morse code and Victrolas, as the oldest reviewer Mr. Frankly was also our most experienced reviewer. As such, his views were the most highly regarded in all the land on anything to do with audio. For those unfamiliar with the laws of the audio reviewing community, experience alone holds sway. Mr. Frankly enjoyed nearly 20 years as top dog; his opinions and views never questioned.

Perhaps his most famous quote came during a recent interview on the ever-expanding influence of Apple Computer’s iPod: “I nod? What’s that you say? I’ve been awake the whole time you young whippersnapper. You can go dah-dah-dah-dit-dah-dash yourself. Daggummit!”

And while most of the audio world mourned his loss, the 2nd oldest audio reviewer is pictured above shortly after receiving the news.

I don’t know why people think audiophiles are weird.

disclaimer: this is an undoctored photo found on a forum.

Elizabeth Cotten
Folksongs and Instrumentals with Guitar

Born in 1895 in North Carolina, Elizabeth bought and taught herself to play guitar at age 11. She was left handed and played a righty guitar upsidedown in finger style so she plucked the melody with her thumb and played the bass lines with her forefinger. She wrote Freight Train her most famous song when she was 12.

Elizabeth married at 15 and had a daughter. She gave up playing guitar (the church told her to – especially that ragtime). While working in a department store selling dolls some 40 years later, she found a lost little girl and helped her find her mother. Turned out that girl was Peggy Seeger (daughter of Ruth Crawford Seeger and sister of Pete) and Elizabeth ended up working for the Seeger family. What with all that music going on, she eventually picked up a guitar again and the rest is…

You can’t make this stuff up.

Plasticgod
Axis of Evil

A wonderful stocking stuffer for the little ones. From LA artist Plasticgod, each evil-doer stands 5″ tall. George W. Bush, Kim Jong-il, Osama Bin-Laden, Saddam Hussein and Tony Blair.

There’s even a limited War Criminal edition of the boys in their special war criminals suits. Notice Sadam is a glow in the dark ghostie now.

Music reviewers never mention the equipment they’re listening through and sometimes audio reviewers don’t mention the music they’re listening to. Funny no?

Muddy Waters
Hard Again

No wait. Don’t hang up. 1997 Muddy Waters with James Cotton and Johnny Winters. Sure it’s not classic/vintage/Chess-era but at 60+ Muddy Waters’ still gathers no moss. Like a rolling fucking stone. Some of the best five bucks o boogie your money can buy.