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Just in the last few years: Lagerfeld, Westwood (who was also predeceased by her natural successor Alexander McQueen), Miyake, & more recently Armani. Now Valentino last week: The remaining big Japanese designers of that era: Rei Kawakubo (Comme des Garçons) & Yohji Yamamoto are both getting up there in age. Ralph Lauren is up there too, and thankfully still active for the brand. With Donatella having stepped down from Versace, who else is left from that period (70/80/90's)? Is Calvin still working? Mucia Prada, Dolce & Gabbana, Tom Ford (Gucci), Marc Jacobs are a few young-ish [sic] names I know crossing over into this century. I have no idea who is leading classic houses like Chanel, Dior, etc. On a positive note, I am currently amazed at Coutre to the Max, who appears to be an old soul in this young boy's body, & doing amazing things. Can this be real?

‘We get a lot of requests for it be used in sex scenes’: how Goldfrapp made Ooh La La https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2026/jan/26/sex-scenes-how-goldfrapp-made-ooh-la-la-baudelaire

It's been a day. Got up this morning and came downstairs to the thought, "man, it feels cold on the first floor of the house." First call was to the boiler guy, praying that a circulation pump had crapped out overnight. Verdict - WRONG ANSWER. He quickly determined the boiler was doing it's thing but the pipes for the zone that heats the first floor were not. Shit. Phoned a friend whose husband is a plumber. Started chasing frozen pipes a little before 11am. Finally found the culprit at 2pm. Had it fixed and flowing heat again by 2:30. All told, it felt like a bargain at under $1000 given that a pipe could have burst and we've got another 10 days or so of freezing temps ahead of us. Still managed to make scones for Lily's best friend who slept over last night and turns 18 next week (JFC) and also still made dinner - pork chili verde with cast-iron-skillet cornbread. There will be barrel strength bourbon in my future. Oh and we've already got almost a foot of snow and I've cleared the driveway once. I believe I will sleep tonight.

Dusty, half this family isn't Jewish, but they bought in....to celebrating Jewish family and events, as well as the Shiva mourning. Call it Shiva or not, to me it's a good thing. There is a lot of formality to a Shiva, many times it is not followed 100%. Personally, I find it the beginning of healing. Family and friends come to pay respect, connect, tell stories, and eat. The formal period is 7 days/nights. When Karen passed, I was tearfully surprised by one of my two best friends flying in from California and spending all the days/nights of Shiva visiting (3 days for us). It's that type of love and connection that helps the healing. It's just a good thing, no matter what it's called, what religion it follows, etc.

I meant kick-start the HC travel team back into being, whether or not Marc has Red Oxx bags.

I've going over my collection, filling in any items I'm missing, I felt I really should have a modernized version of the Sigma. I came across a rather abused normal bias set which needed new drivers but wanted to try something different... so here is the SR-Sigma 507: The housing was very discolored so I wanted to try my hand at painting it. The frame was primed and painted satin black but I left all of the other parts in the primer color. The plan was to make them gloss white but this looked too cool so this is how they stayed. The drivers and cable are from a 507 so it took a lot of work to get this right. The drivers are in the cage that Stax introduced with the x07 series so I glued the drivers and fitted spare metal grills to them. In terms of sound, this is the best Sigma I've ever heard. The bass is overblown, as is always the case with Sigma's, but it has some real power to it and is more controlled than every other I've heard. The top end is nice and clean and the midrange is just sublime. A fun addition to the collection.

After mornings outside when the temps are in the 30s I could get used to going out when it is already 70 at dawn in Hawaii.

I'm going to need a second job...

https://bikerumor.com/proposed-new-hampshire-legislation-would-require-all-bike-owners-to-pay-registration-fees/

That's a tough one.....they were incredible.... On a more personal note, RIP to a friend, Pete Savickas. Pete was a partner to a woman who knew Karen from New York City single days in the 80's. She moved up to a small town in NH and expanded a house on a small lake there. She met Pete many years back and - while they never married - were partners all those years. No kids, but a nice life and acclimated to small town living. Pete was a bit of a curmudgeon, but he could've been in the Dos Equis beer commercial; he was one of the most interesting people I've ever met. He and Debbie were our New Year's Eve partners for several years. A great cook, boater (he had two beautiful wooden Chris Craft boats), wine & beer connoisseur, investor, weather watcher, animal whisperer, and so much more. We would talk about so many things, and I'd learn something new every time we chatted. It was a pleasure to chat about audio, finally something I could teach him; and his interest was always there to learn. I will raise a glass to him, if you are drinking and think to toast him, please do.

RIP Sly Dunbar, 1/2 of the greatest rhythm section of all time. Robbie Shakespeare preceded him 4 years ago.