TMoney

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday, Al!

Looks like they stuck the landing! Thank goodness because there was some serious tension in that room.

Soccer Mommy - color theory Don't let her silly stage name fool you. She is a talented young woman. I like this one a lot.

Happy birthday, Colin!

Happy birthday, Mr. Tice!

Yeah, I think the move to wireless has really up-ended everything. "Good enough" wireless is so convenient that I don't think the genie is ever going back in the bottle.

Good review, and I agree with almost everything you've said. Not a cheap product, but a very good one.

"Sennheiser announced on Tuesday it’s looking for a new partner to buy its consumer audio business, which consists of headphones and soundbars. It’s going to shift its focus entirely to professional audio, including its Neumann microphone division and what Sennheiser calls business communications." Source: https://www.theverge.com/2021/2/16/22285497/sennheiser-investors-selling-consumer-headphones-soundbars-business This is pretty sad. Makes sense why Axel Grell left now. We haven't seen any really new high-end product from them since the HD-820, and it sounds like we shouldn't expect anything else to be forthcoming. The HD600/650 and HD800/S are my two favorite headphones. I don't think they are going away any time soon, but I doubt Senn is investing heavily in any successor models.

Robert Caro - The Path to Power What can I say? Best book on politics I've ever read. Maybe best book on history I've ever read. There are certain books that I know if I see them on someone's shelf that we will get along instantly. Caro is a national treasure. This is so well written and so meticulously researched. It is a 1,000 page monster but it goes down smooth because the history, cast of characters, setting and Caro's prose are so compelling. The first book is less a strict biography of LBJ but more a history and study of America in the beginning of the 20th century with LBJ as a the central character. Texas politics, the Hill Country, the Great Depression and the New Deal all are described so brilliantly. I hope to finish the other 3 volumes this year. There is a chapter in the book about the daily hardships of rural America pre-electrification that is just an absolute knockout and can be read on its own as a great piece of non-fiction.

Waxahatchee - Saint Cloud This is killer! Indie/folk. Pitchfork had it as their #2 album of 2020 behind only Fiona Apple. I'm not one to disagree.

Happy birthday!

RIP, Chris. Von Trapp family singers are going to need a new MC.

Watched the heck out of that show as a kid. RIP, Screech.

There are a lot of reason why baseball has lost me as a fan over the years but this one has always stuck out. The baseball hall of fame is such a joke.

One hundred precent, Tyler. I am in total agreement. That is part of why I have zero interest in Herbert's sequels. He caught lighting in a bottle once, but trying to stretch it out beyond the one book has no appeal to me.

Absolutely wonderful. This is a great complimentary read to those who have watched the show, or a wonderful journey for those who have not seen it yet. I'm really impressed by Tevis as a writer. Ender's Game is one of those books you give to precocious young people who might feel ashamed of being smart. Maybe it is time to re-think that default option and give them this classic instead. Best compliment I can give the book is I read it in a single day. It hooks you and won't let you go.

😢

Tidal recommended these guys based on my listening habits and I have to say, I like it! Quality folk-rock. Big Thief - Masterpiece

Happy birthday!

Late last year I was reading a feature (maybe it was a profile of the movie coming later this year?) where the author made reference to Dune as being impenetrable to a lay audience and full of gobbeldy-gook. I first read the book about two decades ago, so I figured it was a good time to pick it back up and re-read. I'm happy to say the opposite is true. Far from being impenetrable, I found it all but impossible to put down once I got momentum going. I think it has aged beautifully. I think it is well deserving of its "classic of the genre" status. Dune's brilliance, to me, comes from the combination of its world-building, characters, prose (better than I remembered), and plot (schemes within schemes). I think Dune ends up as more than the sum of its parts. In not being overly reliant on any one aspect of story-telling, it succeeds in a way that a lot of classic sci-fi does not under contemporary scrutiny. Herbert's focus on character and location give Dune timelessness in ways that sci-fi novels overly reliant on cool/novel technology can never be. I also can't believe how middle-eastern the book is having re-read it after travelling to the region. -- I'm not at all excited about the 2021 movie. I get wanting to bring this story to a wider audience who is never going to read a 600 page sci-fi book from the 60s. Dune is just so fulfilling to those of us who love it. However, even with low expectations for the movie I fully expect to be disappointed. The Lynch movie at least nailed the production design and a lot of the casting, even if it ended up a colossal mess. The story is just very difficult to cram down to a 2-3 hour script without losing a lot of the richness that makes Dune what it is. But hey, paging @cutestory! When was the last time you (re)read it, Jeffy who is known to us as Maud'dib, and how did it hold up for you?

Happy birthday, G-Man!

🍿 I think I'm going to wait to play it until the 1.2 patch hits. I'd rather experience it at its best.

Happy birthday, meme-lord!