HiWire

I've always been curious about this one... Matador is re-releasing the Exile in Guyville on May 4, but I'm not sure if the remastering will be a step forward, backward, or sideways, considering how well the original was regarded: https://consequenceofsound.net/2018/03/liz-phair-announces-25th-anniversary-exile-in-guyville-box-set/ Metric – Grow Up and Blow Away

Pretenders

I've been running 11.2.6 on my iPad for a few weeks. No problems at all so far.

Young Marble Giants – Colossal Youth Styx – Paradise Theatre Minimal – maximal music...

Any news on the new DSHA amps? I'm guessing they turned out to be labor-intensive or prohibitively expensive to put together...

Magic City... I've been looking forward to this one for a while:

Rush – 2112 Prince – Purple Rain ... a little late to the party

I'm fairly conservative when it comes to knives. I've never had the money or the desire for "designer/custom/collector" products, so all my knives are mass produced. Just as an example, you could get the Sypderco Tenacious folder for about $45 from Amazon and you wouldn't have to worry about it: https://www.amazon.com/Spyderco-Tenacious-Plain-Folding-Knife/dp/B007CK1MNU/

The titanium frame makes it worth more, and the blade steel (RWL34) could perform reasonably: https://www.spyderco.com/forumII/viewtopic.php?t=70461 Ultimately, it's up to you if you like the design. You can buy a useful every-day-carry knife/utility folder for much, much less. This looks more like a gentleman's knife than a hard-use knife (e.g., the handle looks slippery), but the materials and fit and finish look good in the pictures.

I bought and read Black Man years ago... it was enjoyable, but I felt like I was missing something. Obviously, I should have read the other books. The book I think of immediately when the transference of consciousness is mentioned is Kiln People by David Brin... highly recommended.

Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan (for really obvious reasons)... I've been meaning to read it for years.

Getting rid of all the ports might allow them to make a waterproof iPhone/iPad (IP68). It's going to be a pain point with A/V gear for a while, though... I can foresee a booming business in XLR to Bluetooth dongles, low-latency wi-fi hubs for mixing equipment, effects, etc... maybe in ten years. Not sure if fiber optics will get a shot before cables disappear.

Keeping it on an i5 and 8GB is basically the best way to keep the price down. You can configure a new one with a 256GB SSD for only $50 more.

What are you using it for? I'd go for the 2TB Fusion drive because it has a larger SSD cache of 128GB... the 1TB Fusion drive might have a 24GB or 32GB cache: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7975498 I'd also go for 16GB of RAM and an i7, but that's just to mitigate the fact that it's a product from 2014. Graphic power is a weak point, but it's good enough to run 1080 resolution. A bit hard to justify at the prices Apple is charging, even refurbished. The strong points are that it has Thunderbolt 2 and you won't have to buy a dongle for Gigabit Ethernet or HDMI. It's probably a good idea to use an old keyboard and mouse... Apple increased the price of the new wireless keyboards and mice.

Bryan Ferry – Bête Noire

I hope the cables are labelled nicely behind all the gear... what a dream studio.

Bojack Horseman... better than a sitcom!

Great article... I think I'm at the opposite end of the writer's spectrum, though, despite the amount of time I spend listening to music. Since I buy music in CD/SACD form, my library is strongly constrained by budget, so I don't listen to as much new music as I should (my collection is also strongly-weighted toward audiophile recordings, which generally means that it is extraordinarily conservative). Instinctively, I know this is wrong because many of my favorite albums have been somewhat random, rather than planned purchases. Still, that Mobile Fidelity SACD of Santana III has my name on it. Even with those caveats, I have no excuses with access to free Spotify, internet radio, YouTube, etc. We are living in an unprecedented age of musical accessibility, and I am not one to complain.

Suzy Wilde https://soundcloud.com/suzy-wilde

I'm loving it so far. They appear to have consciously avoided repeating themselves and some of the stuff has been crazy, beautiful, scary, and unforgettable. It's bittersweet, too, to see everyone getting old and knowing some of the actors aren't around any more (RIP, Miguel Ferrer). I'm going to try and pace myself with an episode a week. This show deserves my time and it shouldn't be binge watched.

I finally got the Blu-ray set for this show (just watched the first 4 episodes). The sound design is by David Lynch... I'm not sure if people with TV speakers are getting everything out of the show. Has anyone else watched it yet? I'm surprised by how many actors Lynch was able to get back. There are some big-name stars, too, but I don't want to put too many spoilers in here.

Patti Smith – Horses

Annie – Two of Hearts

I wonder how long it will take for a hardware fix in new Intel processors? This messes up my purchasing budget for the next few months at least...

Happy Birthday!