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It's a small and crazy world! Many of you know that I've semi-retired as a Carpenter, and am working at a Lumber Yard/Hardware store here in Fairfax, CA. I help a lot of Contractors locally, and being a small town, many have heard of my work, because of Jack Irving, who I worked with on Al's house years back. Some that I'm close to have seen pics of many of my past projects. Today I got a call from an older, local Contractor/Musician (there are many in the area). He was at Linda Ronstadt's house in San Francisco yesterday. He's been her Contractor and her friend for decades. She was telling him about some bookshelves that she saw at a bookstore in the Sunset district. She wanted to know if he could build some like them? So they went to look them over. Upon arriving, the store owner recognized Linda and struck up a conversation. Linda explained how she loved the custom shelving. The owner told her about the man that built them, but that he wasn't working with the same Contractor anymore. She showed Linda more of his work at the bookstore, and then invited them to her house a few blocks away for lunch, and to see all of the custom work he'd done there. During lunch she informed her that she still had his phone number and said she'd call to see if it was OK to give it out. In doing so she mentioned his full name. Her Contractor and friend Andy Giddings said "wait, I know him, he works at the lumber counter of my local lumber yard". Today Andy Giddings got my number from my employers after explaining the story, and he called me to tell me that Linda Rondstadt would love to have me build her some bookshelves, and maybe more. He told me that I was going to love her, and she me. We talked about possibly working together on that project. He was also impressed with my work. It's a funny world. I'm not actively seeking weekend projects, but who's going to turn down Linda Ronstadt?

It’s still rocking. I just released the hookers and blow into the 6th floor.

Well, nothing has happened yet except a phone call from another Contractor. But I'm excited just to meet her. I watched her documentary a little while back and was even more intrigued with her life than previously. I'd be extremely honored to build anything for her, but there are some time hurdles to jump over before anything is going to happen. Still, I can't imagine not jumping a few hurdles to make this happen.

The funny thing is, I don't really find those bookshelves to be anything special. But people like what they like. But the bookstore owner is one of my favorite past clients. She and I collaborated on many of the things I built at her stunning $8,000,000 home. It's literally across the street from the ocean on the Great Highway. The bookstore she owns is a coffee shop as well, where I was awarded free coffee for life.🙂 It was my first big project after the pandemic, and she told my boss that on that project I would be her employee, so that we didn't have to run our ideas through the company. She paid me more than I made with the company, and we only grew closer in that time period.

This is just plain beautiful! All pales in comparison 💕

Went to hear Wynton tonite .. spotted Paul Simon in the crowd

As for me... played with my kids all day (my back is broken from sitting on the floor). Rachel is helping her Parents move all weekend, so I'm solo. Just ate dinner and am cleaning up. May stream later, but may be too tired. Not a bad day, but no fucking 'contacted by Linda Rondsadt's people' kind of day, haha.

A few worthy photos from CAF this weekend…

Great shots. Back from another PhotoFair, just throw shit on the table edition. Also their 50th anniversary. I was good and only bought two $5 “tabletop” old tripods (the only type I seem to use anymore). That justifies buying the ridiculous new lens I really want, right?

She sure is, Key-Lime Pie Girl and I have been together since then. Good memory! Rachel remembers you as well and was part of the push for me reaching out to Renato et al. and coming back here. Takes good care of me. We actually got married recently as she wanted her Dad to walk her down the aisle (he has Parkinsons).

I went on a whim when I learned a friend visiting from out of town was going. A good time, somehow felt even more snake oil heebie-jeebies than usual with obvious comarketing deals for insane cables throughout the show (my favorite claim was "Enhanced Quantum Purification Core Technology" on an AC cord. I'm actually desperately curious to take a grinder to one of these and learn its secrets. My guess? Magnets.). And VAC put a lot of energy into giving everyone amps for their rooms. Not a fan, but whatever, seemed fine. Acoras sounded great despite snake oiliness. Maggie 30.7s wonderful, as you'd expect. VPI room with JBL Everest was a fun vibe. Was impressed at the crossover tuning of the YGs I heard, but hard to say in the room. As always, Haniwa good for a laugh with a plainly obviously broken and rattling bass driver and their magic DSP which somehow multiplies all room gain and phase problems. Wish I took a closer look and chatted with the Elekit guy, anyone have experience with them? (P.S. just a taste from that link above because I can't resist, it's just too perfect) I love to have more streamline electron sharing. Oh, fine, one more. JFC.

I'm not ready for a new espresso machine as the Lelit Bianca I bought some years ago is still doing a great job, but I found an announcement from Fellow interesting. I bought a Fellow Aiden I have been enjoying thanks to @luvdunhill , and have been receiving Fellow marketing emails. Here is an early review for the curious. I have to admit it piqued my interest, particularly how quickly it heats up. Looks like it can be bought for $1200 with an early discount and they toss in a credit for coffee beans. https://www.engadget.com/home/kitchen-tech/the-espresso-series-1-is-the-new-crown-jewel-in-fellows-coffee-gadget-lineup-170008473.html HS

Saw Mary Fahl last night, I think the 6th time I've seen her (7th if you count October Project in 1995). Wonderful concert, some of her hits, October Project hits, and covers. The whole second set was her adaptation of Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon, pretty stunning. I think this may have been my favorite show of hers. Got to chat with her and her husband after the show, and also met 3 folks with whom I'll keep in contact ongoing; just some amazingly nice people.

Remember when I mentioned 19th century railroad bridges a few months ago? A part of my re-visiting of photos I took in 2010, I ran a few shots I took of the Chester Arches and water below through modern software. Luminar 4 is a fine tool if one wrangles it properly. I'm still not much enamored by Luminar Neo. Watch out for that train! Tune in next time for a walk around town with a not very good Tamron superzoom "vacation" lens.

I don't know anything about D&D or One Piece, but I can tell you're a good dad!

Maybe….

Non Fiction - Piano Concerto in Four Movements by Hania Rani (2025) https://open.qobuz.com/album/xnmzga8qy8r2a Not an Example - but a mini doc: Released Yesterday. A pretty serious work. It will be interesting to see how this settles for my in the future.

Haha, It's been a trip Steve! You really need to figure out your own shit when you have little ones to look after. They both look much more like Mom, but they each have half of my brain. I've come to realize that I'm basically a shaman and a hunter trapped in the same body. Jack/Jackson (my 9yo, soon to be 10) is the shaman. He's super deep and sensitive, always reading or drawing, has spoken like an adult since he was 5 and has most of them wrapped around his finger. Most of the girls in his class and probably a few of the boys have crushes on him and he has absolutely no idea, lol. We're currently reading together while I have my morning coffee. Westley/West (my 4yo) is most definately the hunter. He's like a force of nature, full of personality, turn your back for a second and he's gone, always climbing the highest thing he can find but rarely gets hurt. Lies compulsively, but is *terrible* at it. Lately has been bringing home school library books without taking them out properly and tells us that his friends are giving them to him. They certainly keep us on our toes.

I wished Dinny happy birthday by text. I mentioned that Philodox has reappeared, and suggested that he do the same. He claimed he would take me up on the suggestion and in the meantime he asked me for say hi to the HC crew. So hello mothersfucker!

Costco Ramen

A boat battery box of sorts. Allows me to connect my Garmin EchoMap, charge my phone and start my Yamaha motor push to start outboard. Waiting for some insulated terminal knob battery connectors to arrive before give it a go next week..

This is beyond cool: I have the EV-1's user manual here and it was a fascinating thing

Paul Buchanan - Mid Air (2012) Singer of The Blue Nile, his first solo album

Does that lift the veil? 🙃

My reward for getting up and getting my laundry done early. A scramble of orange bell pepper, shallot, tomato, avocado and eggs. Bacon, biscuits and fried potatoes with shallots. Iced coffee with Irish Cream Liqueur.

Learning about the Melungeons.

Happy autumn everybody...

Working through my FLAC catalog and doing a little hunt and peck for some of my favourites. (currently in A ) Anoushka Shankar & Karsh Kale - Breathing Under Water Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra - Who is this America? Archive - Londinium Asian Dub Foundation - Community Music

God we are all getting old. Jarvis is starting to make me think of Kipling's "a rag and a bone and a hank of hair."

No, that's not what I mean. Your little orange haired gnome can stuff it.

Inkjet printing? How very 2005! I print everything on a 3D printer now. Gay porn on a 3D printer is especially mind altering.

Years and years of hoarding!!!

Recently I had been toying with the idea of streaming and making videos, but had been dragging my feet on actually starting... Then around a week ago I was watching elybeatmaker, a streamer I enjoy, and he decided to raid me when he finished. Ended up being an absolute blast and I think I was actually decent at it. Figured this might be a good way to reconnect with some of the friends I've left behind along the way and rekindle/reapply some of my previous 'obsessions'. Not to say that I don't listen to music anymore, but I'm not as picky as I once was and tend to spin vinyl with the kids on some modest speakers while the ThunderCougerFalconBi... *ahem* McAlister Audio Massive Attack sadly collects dust for the most part. Hoping to change that soon though. Anyway, the shameless plug: [philodox42 on Twitch] I've only had three streams so far, and one was largely a technical test. I'd recommend watching the first bit of the long one as that's when the raid hit and you can see me scramble. I'm actually pretty close to Affiliate after that raid, so a follow would really help and it would be a great way to catch up with some old friends. I can also post here the next time I stream in case anyone wants to chat. Doesn't have to have anything to do with Minecraft... and if anyone here does play Minecraft, lmk and I can send you an invite to my server. PS. If the links aren't allowed, please strip them from the post.

Our daughter, having lived in Australia for the last 10 years, developed the characteristic rising inflexion at the end of each sentence (listen to the Wombat walkers). She then decided that it sounded just wrong as an ex-pat Brit, and eradicated it totally from the way she speaks.

Qobuz exists. Just sayin.

At least it's not ipodBJ

In my forever quest to make electrostatics from cheap dynamic headphones, I just got a pair of these, the Kiwi Ears something or the other: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005009234464157.html?pvid=c3232602-d097-4531-93f9-6433fea6c6ac&pdp_ext_f={"ship_from":"CN","sku_id":"12000048952692658"}&scm=1007.25281.473483.0&scm-url=1007.25281.473483.0&scm_id=1007.25281.473483.0&pdp_npi=6%40dis!USD!US %2469.99!US %2459.49!!!69.99!59.49!%402101529317631651718268540ec641!12000048952692658!gdf!IS!134806951!X!1!0!n_tag%3A-29919%3Bd%3A824946d7%3Bm03_new_user%3A-29895&mainPicRatio=1&spm=a2g0o.tm1000037862.2920499520.d0&aecmd=true They seem to be good contenders for this, dual cable entry, earpads which will work nicely for electrostatic duty and they are dirt cheap. The baffle has a row of holes around the driver face but I'd use 4 of them to mount the new drivers and the first PCB will cover up the rest. Some light glue there would help it seal better. This does mean the baffle won't have to be modified at all, just pull out the drivers (which is a pain) and I also took off the foam but it's not that difficult. I've already modified my Superlux/Beyerdynamic drivers to fit them and I'll order some PCB's up tomorrow. The only issue I can see, aside from the usual baffle woes, is the close to zero clearance to fit the mounting screws for the drivers. The earpads are on a bayonet piece and there is no distance between it and the baffle. It is possible to use counter sunk screws and just modify the baffle to fit them flush so that will be my first test. The opening is roughly 46mm and the drivers are 67mm in diameter with a 55mm opening to clear a raised part of the inside of the baffle.

I can't play the embedded version, nor know what this is, but in case others can play on YT... youtu.be/9gJq_BMVY7I?si=her4S2d9uLJj9v2e youtube.com/watch?v=ABZT8IoL2dg

Just ordered that Mustache toner from 123ink, so I'll let you know how it is.

Last I remember you had recently separated from your wife, and had just met 'Keylime Pie'. Is Keylime Pie Mommy, or has another dessert stolen your heart?

I really tried to understand Steve, no success. But I laughed hard.

Digesting the Johann Johannsson Retrospective II set... ... so tonight...

Wait, what? Canada? Don't you mean the 51st state? 😝

Forgot to mention, my oldest son is turning 10 this month and we are throwing him a One Piece themed B-Day party... I'm going to run a One Piece themed game for him and 4-5 of his friends. SUPER NERVOUS! Ten year olds are harsh critics, lol. Also a little rusty, but I used to be quite good, so we'll see what I can come up with. EDIT: HA! You can double post here, excellent. Suck it Head-Fi!

The drivers are genuine, there is just no way to reuse the stock rings so I had to have my own made. The 009 diaphragm rings make zero sense too as there is no way to solder to them so PCB's here make a lot more sense. Plus more insulation as the stock setup is not ideal. The stators and the case will be stock and I went for slightly thicker rings for the dust covers to add more compression to the drivers. I'm also going to replace all the o-rings with better units. One thing I want to do as well is plug that hole in the center of the stators. I don't understand the reasoning behind it and it might be one of the reason why the 009's sound so bad.

£220 ‘for a cut-up sock' - Apple's new iPhone Pocket ridiculed online https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn97ndgpnq7o

vinyl

Famous Blue Raincoat. Songs of Leonard Cohen by Jennifer Warnes (1986) https://open.qobuz.com/album/0826663104905 Example: Very well recorded Jennifer.