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Axpona is always a blast. Spent quite a bit of time with a view of @naamanf’s head. Lots of good “small scale” rooms (too many to list). Notable highlights for me this year were the big Stenheim room on the ground floor, Jeff Catalano’s High Water Sound room with the upgraded Cessaro horns, MBL, and Bill Parish with the Vivids. Bonus photo of the SAT turntable I’d never encountered in person before.

Beethoven for Three: Symphonies Nos. 2 and 5 by Yo-Yo Ma (2022) https://album.link/i/1590901485 Example: I thought I would put this on as a light listen - and holy smokes is it good. This was the first one released in the B43 series (2022). And the arrangement and performance of the 2nd symphony is shockingly good to me. And well done on Sony's part for the recording. I liked the one that was released this year (posted a bit ago), but not like this. Third listen this week and it is only Tuesday. It may become a staple in my queue.

Indeed. From https://www.mylondon.news/whats-on/whats-on-news/outrageous-life-notorious-chef-marco-21602394 "Allegedly, Marco even once made Gordon Ramsay - renowned for being a tough chef who regularly causes jaws to drop on shows like Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares - break down in tears. Australia's news.com.au reports Marco trained Gordon at his restaurant Harvey's, and "exposed [him] to daily rituals of humiliation, foul language, flying knives and almost unbearable pressure," according to a 2006 profile in The Telegraph. Marco said: "I can’t remember what it was about, but I yelled at him and he lost it. The next thing I knew he was sobbing in the corner, holding his head in his hands, with tears rolling down his cheeks. "He was saying things like, 'I don’t care what you do to me. Hit me. I don’t care'." The problem is that the bullied and humiliated become the bullier and humiliator. I've had two bosses who fell into that category, alas (Both now safely dead). The poet Philip Larkin wrote a bleak poem called "This be the Verse" that describes this sort of process: They fuck you up, your mum and dad. They may not mean to, but they do. They fill you with the faults they had And add some extra, just for you. But they were fucked up in their turn By fools in old-style hats and coats, Who half the time were soppy-stern And half at one another’s throats. Man hands on misery to man. It deepens like a coastal shelf. Get out as early as you can, And don’t have any kids yourself.

Yes, stuck in that hell hole all weekend at a nearby holiday inn express

I hope so... ...er...