postjack

Fuck Yeah!

As long as we are living in a fantasy land with $1400 R10s, I'd take them over the OII at that price any day.

Denon DA-500

Not eating right now, but I had to share this muffuletta I had this weekend at Central Grocery in New Orleans, where the muffuletta was invented: With an ice cold Barqs in a glass bottle and a bag of Zapp's sour cream and onion. It was totally, totally awesome.

more snack impressions please.

By all means, send it on to the Lone Star state whenever you are done. I'm doing just fine with my current setup.

Anyone ever hear this? I was thinking it would be cool to have a budget audio solution in my kitchen to listen to when I'm cooking. Nothing fancy, just something to throw on top of the fridge or on the counter. A squeezebox + active speakers would do the trick, but the Boom's transportability is attractive.

The Cinemag is out on extended loan right now. Eventually I'd like to do some comparisons with an MM phono with loading at 100ohms + cinemag SUT vs. the Bugle, but thats probably a little ways down the road.

Cool.

Oh, did I miss satire?

pelikans are great, but you only really need an oblique nib if you hold your pen a funny way. If it's line variation you crave, ditch the oblique and get a stub. My current carry pens are a Lamy 2000 XF, Pelikan M205 demo F nib, and a $33 tac carry II M nib.

I haven't done any opamp rolling yet, been to busy to fiddle with gear. I have a few marc sent me I'm going to try.

Did Voodoo Fest in New Orleans yesterday. A great time was had by all. We left Mobile Saturday afternoon, so with the two hour drive we only caught the evening acts, but the whole trip was just to see Nine Inch Nails. First up was Thievery Corporation. I could go the rest of my life without having that dreadie dude or that latino chick yelling at me through a sea of their dub lounge bullshit. Summed up real nicely when my friend Meribeth stood up, pointed at the stage and said "I've had about enough of that shit". Next up was Mars Volta. I'm not a Mars Volta fan, but I haven't written them off either. The only album I've heard of their's is Frances the Mute, which I found immediately appealling and almost as quickly wearisome: the songs lack substance and direction. Come to find out I had a similar reaction to the live show. The first song was like a delicious piece of progressive chocolate cake being crammed down my mouth, then the second song was the same, then the third song more sweet chocolate icing, and on and on, and in the words of my girlfriend "all I want is a glass of milk, not more chocolate cake." So I was happy when they left the stage. The next was a band called Ghostland Observatory. We were actually setup at the NIN stage at this point, so I wasn't close enough to hear them extremely well (at voodoo each stage is actually two stages facing each other at a distance of maybe a couple hundred yards, so the music never stops and the crowd just moves between stages), but when I went to the bathroom it sounded pretty cool. I might check them out later. Then was Nine Inch Nails! This was the true reason for the 45 minute walk from our parking space to the entrance of the festival grounds. Trent was home in New Orleans and put on an amazing show. I'd heard about the light show but really had to see it to believe it. Absolutely unreal, easily the best light show I've ever seen at a rock concert, period. I kept a set list but its kind of a mess because I don't know all the titles to the songs, but here is an incomplete list anyway: Discipline, March of the Pigs, Closer, Gave Up, Great Destroyer, Piggy, Pinion > Wish, Terrible Lie, Survivalism, The Hand That Feeds, Head Like a Hole, Hurt. Highlights include March of the Pigs which came early in the show and was way intense. Great Destroyer was off the industro-glitch chains; I think it is as good as any song Trent has written. Some of you may have seen a picture floating around the internet of a nails show with a blue screen of death behind him. This happened during Great Destroyer, literally only for a second as the screens flashed through a hundred different images. I thought it was cool since we know Trent is an Apple man. Closer was awesome, but its only one of the greatest rock singles ever written so. Pinion > Wish was one of those "oh my god this is so badass the world is about to asplode" moments. Head Like A Hole closed the set before a multiple song encore, and right when the song ends a huge red NIN is up on the screen, it was a moment of pure band worship for me. Trent did a lot of the Ghosts stuff inbetween the regular songs, and it added so much to the show, what with all the beautiful and haunting imagery he had up on the screens during the slower bits. He made his political statement during "The Hand That Feeds", when he put a huge face shot of GWB up on the screen, which ever so subtly morphed into McCain by the songs end. Trent gave a great speech before the last few songs about how good it was to be home, and about how much he loves the city and how happy he is to see New Orleans coming back. I've considered New Orleans to be the greatest city on the planet since I was a kid so I shared his sentiments. For me I'm happy that Trent has his shit together and didn't become just another lame rock casualty. His live show has proven to me he is an artist of the highest order.

Opeth at the HOB in New Orleans, this past Saturday night. Openers were Baroness, who do what I call a progressive grindcore. I'm not a big grindcore guy, but Baroness impresses me. They are a lot more raw live then studio (their second album, while exceptional, comes across as produced a bit too hygienically for my tastes), and their talent is obvious. They blasted out a quick 30 minute set I believe without any pause inbetween songs, at one point even going into a weird "Space" like place that made me feel like I was at an 80s Grateful Dead show. The lead singer looks like one of the Geico cavemen. Anyway they were awesome, I'm expecting big things from them in the coming years. High On Fire came next, and put on a great show, but were upstaged by Baroness. Straight ahead three piece sludge thrash, pretty badass but the least focused band of the night. And then came Opeth. Ohhhhh shit. Wow wow wow. My expectations for this show were very high, and they were met and exceeded. The most outstanding thing about Opeth, and I can't emphasize this enough, is that Akerfeldt just stands very still throughout all his growls and singing. Just very still. See, I'm used to seeing a Phil Alsemo type metal lead singer going apeshit all over the stage. I couldn't help but think of Jay-Z. Because Jay-Z was the first rapper who figured out you didn't have to yell to be a badass, because it was the quiet talking bad guys in the movies who always had the most power. The power and grace emanating from Akerfeldt, throughout all his poise and motionlessness, was just uncanny. His between song banter was dignified and incredibly charming. If you haven't noticed I developed a BIT of a heterosexual mancrush on him. Another notable thing is that Opeth has no problem playing the old shit. They played more stuff they wrote 5-10 years ago then the new stuff, which the audience really appreciated. Having said that, the audience collectively shit themselves when the humming started for "The Lotus Eater", track three off of Watershed, in what might have been the most badass song of the night. Focus, discipline, grace, perfection. That was Opeth. GO SEE THIS BAND LIVE!

happy birthday!

It was just a barely legible joke typed from my iPhone. I will most definitely PM you when the Buffalo gets in my hands.

happy birthday Kevin.

I bet it sounds like wwwwwwhhhhhiiiirrrrrrrr...

I ain't pmin shit damn

happy birthday peter!

Ryan Adams & The Cardinals Cardinology vinyl preorder. :dance: totally badass webpage for the album: PREORDER Cardinals CARDINOLOGY out OCT 28TH

I had one selling transaction with waddragon that went fine, but he is a total sketchball.

great looking cans. I hope they use a different bass mechanism then the W5K.

Interesting! Keep in mind my source on this is random people on Vinyl Asylum. YMMV.