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Nice day

Wuhoo! We're 75% of the way there on fundraising with a little over two weeks to go.

Everyone is going to have their favorites. Here are mine.

I've never used the F1, but my pal ChatGPT says it's a good price for the condition. This weekend went up to San Francisco or back to San Francisco. Way back. Fun time and with the M Monochrom (M9M) and the LLL 50mm f/1.5 Z21 (focus mid-frame and wider a challenge)

Likely the last long training ride was accomplished today. I didn't start out intending to ride this far, but it happened and felt good.

I just found this funny...

So returning to physical media I've bought a few used box sets. My favorite silly purchase is The Complete Bill Evans on Verve, which I'm now starting the first of the 18 CDs. Note future box set designers: if you're tempted to create an untreated metal box that "naturally rusts" don't. "The design of the box is reminiscent of that of a block of apartment houses I saw in Bratislava shortly after the Communist regime collapsed in Eastern Europe." Ex.

The Castro Theater in San Francisco

No masterpiece here, just my first roll of film with the AE1p, some examples testing the camera/Gold 200.

A beautiful person inside and out, a talented musician, and an outright ICON. RIP Dolly! The world needs a LOT more people like her! EDIT: my favorite....Whitney was great but has nothing on Dolly for this....

In the cat's defense, there was no more practical way to get on top of the speaker.

Hey we are back!!! Ben Webster Meets Oscar Peterson by Ben Webster (1959) https://open.qobuz.com/album/0060253773074 Example: Friday coolness.

From my IG feed.

Promotional stress reliever from a company that makes ear plugs.

"I'm gonna scratch the shit out of those speaker grills."

Saw Kaki King last night, small venue in Southern Maine about 1.5 miles from my condo. She is so good! I described it on FB as feeling like being by a lake with gentle waves lapping onto the shore - at least her mellower songs. Then she would break out into her frenetic playing with body hits for rhythm, and fast finger moving and fret-playing. She even got pretty talkative with the audience. I guess it was her 3rd time playing the place; maybe 50 people there, but they were true fans.

Trigger by Sharon Mansur (2025) https://open.qobuz.com/album/qpt5r10bpmoua Example: Found down in my queue a bit. Released last year, most likely added based on Dusty post. I like her flow, and the trio plays well together. Nice variety of styles.

Legend. 😔 I think what I loved about her so much is that she had a very self-aware yet positive outlook on life. This is such a lovely window into how she views and portrays herself:

Here's my Dolly story. During the first Gulf War the Navy flew me and about 30 others to Bahrain on a 21 hour flight to meet our ships. They evidently only had three movies to play on the plane's big screen for either a calming influence before whatever was next, or a reminder of everything great about America. Thus a The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, 9 to 5, and [Lori Anderson as a poor man's Dolly] Stroker Ace marathon loop. Over and over. RIP Dolly.

Void cat is checking out appreciating the heat radiating from a vintage Harman Kardon Citation V.

Having a little trashy fun.....one of my favorite bands to see live back in the day, along with a band I WILL see live for the first time in September. The Cramps - Gravest Gravy - bit bootleg sounding, but a compilation of early recordings. And Messer Chups - The Incredible Crocotiger; a fun Russian Surf-Rock-Horror-Exotica band.....they'll open for Reverend Horton Heat, another I haven't seen.

Miles Davis, The Complete Birth of the Cool Music on TIDALMiles Davis - The Complete Birth Of The CoolListen to The Complete Birth Of The Cool on TIDAL

Indeed, he was a painter, not a famous one but a good one. Father of three, grand father of other three. Very fun and vital I keep very good memories from my childhood with him and my cousins.

I wonder if I had a biscuit if it would help with the big, beautiful obituary... RIP to the greats Dolly and Tim.

13 years ago. I missed it. It's still great. That's the great thing about music?

Not serious, but true. 1954: Capitol issued Classics in Jazz: Miles Davis (T-762), compiling the 12 recordings from the famous Birth of the Cool sessions. Later in 1957: Capitol retitled/reissued the LP as Birth of the Cool. Cool is so much cooler.

A guy on reddit rehoused Alec 604e in new enclosures:

After a nice crabmeat sandwich lunch, got my Flu and (first) Shingles shots. Vaccines for the MFW!

Basia - the background instruments sound like something out of a Sega Genesis game... maybe Streets of Rage or Shinobi (I mean that in a good way):

Ha -- Max out the Mini... or Studio... Bye bye money...

🥺

Needs Banana for scale.

I love seeing Kaki King play. I've seen her in smallish places but not in front of only 50 people! In SF she draws much bigger. She's most often been quite chatty at shows I've seen.

Jazz Standards to Kill Yourself To (Full Album) “Free Black Metal is a subgenre of metal that uses entirely improvised songwriting, akin to Free Jazz.” 00:00 Autumn Leaves 4:54 All The Things You Are 10:49 Giant Steps 14:01 So What 22:50 Blue In Green

The Queen...

Sorry for your loss Antonio. RIP Uncle José Luis. Jaye P. Morgan was fun and sexy in her own way on the Gong Show. She was 94! Rip Jaye P.

Although I never saw Dolly Parton in concert, we were lucky enough to see Emmy Lou Harris earlier this year in Birmingham Symphony Hall (UK). At 79, she'd lost her highest notes, but she was absolutely awesome. After a couple of mumbly numbers she said to the sound mixer at the stage side "Can you please rebalance the sound, and bring my voice up" That did the trick!

Need a mortgage for that Mac Studio... on the other hand, you might cure cancer.

I don't know what this says about me that I'm almost done listening to it, and I'm still not sure if it's serious or not. So A+ for artiste-ness and straight-faced delivery. Unrelated: have you ever listened to my ..."album"? It's...experimental for lack of a better word.

I'm enjoying this channel -- lots of cool unique versions. https://youtube.com/@caffinated80s-tt2oc That version of Moving in Stereo at the top is (fire)

Marin Metric Century done and dusted! That was so much fun. Cool to ride with thousands of people. The stretch along Tomales Bay is A++ riding. Those of you who have been out to Marshall for Oysters know what I am talking about. I am soooo glad I trained for the climbing and held some back for the final hill. Next year we do the 100 miler!

Okay, I finally confirmed the source of the problem today. It looks like the LSK389 input stage is simply extremely sensitive and is very easily picking up magnetic field noise from the power transformer.

Ojas and Klipsch colab - kO-R2

Now we are talk'in 😉. The tube channel has become really close to the SiC FET channel, both at 100V output. The performance is not yet at the Carbon level, but is pretty good for a tube amp. What was the problem with the previous mod? The simplified G2 supply didn't work well. This tube is quite sensitive to Vg2 (which may make it a good candidate for G2-drive applications, given the low Ig2). The previous circuit has Vg1 as part of Vg2, so the Vg1 variations causes Vg2 changes. The solution is to use one 150V zener diode for each tube, put it across G2 and K, and feed <1mA of current from GND using a resistor or a current source. I also added a 10uF capacitor in parallel with the zener. Without it, the output clips at around 300V but the distortion still looks good before the clipping. Now the circuit should deserve an audition. Since the main problem is the knee on the Ia curve and Ig2 curve below Va=100V, with higher B- (500V maybe?) and perhaps higher current, the tube circuit should perform even better. I'll leave that to the next episode. For now I'm waiting for the sockets from China to build the other channel.